Source Code
by theparanoidpanther
Summary: You've been here forever and a day. At least, that's what it feels like. It's not like you could actually tell. Time doesn't exist. Nothing exists. Sometimes you're not even sure if you exist anymore. ... Well, not really. But you can still dream. (Reader-Insert)
1. int remove (const char universe)

Waitaminute... this isn't Temperance!

While writing my other story I came up with this one. I'm not really sure why I did, it just kinda... exists. I guess it was because I had writer's block with Temperance a couple of times and needed to focus on a different idea to cleanse myself of it.

I was going to hold back on this because running two stories at the same time is hard but it turns out I have no restraint. Expect bare minimum updates.

TW for suicide mentions and related themes. This one is designed to just _drip_ with angst.

.

.

.

* * *

The anti-void was a strange place. It was a bright white and completely endless; at least, that's how it felt some of the time. Other times you wondered if it was in fact colourless (like a polar bear's fur) and shockingly small. It wasn't as if you could tell when you were left alone there for long periods of time.

During the rare times you saw other entities you could gain some clarity and perspective; maybe even a little bit of your sanity back. Unfortunately that kind of thing didn't really matter to you any more. It wasn't as if that kind of stuff ever changed anything.

All you could do was sleep. All you could ever do was sleep. Closing your eyes helped to block out the unnerving and impossible combination of claustrophobia and agoraphobia that the anti-void gave you. Sometimes you were lucky enough to dream.

Like now, you were dreaming of a memory.

It was the kind of memory that you'd long forgotten; back when you had lived in a world that no longer existed. It was a completely normal world in your eyes. Then again, anyone would claim that their world was 'normal' if they had spent the entirety of their existence there.

You did the things that you did, no more, no less. Sometimes you laughed and had fun. Sometimes you cried and lamented your life choices. Sometimes you simply existed and that was fine too. They were all things you had taken for granted. Right up until the day that you were ripped away from your world, or more accurately, your world was ripped away from you. Your entire universe was destroyed, leaving you with no chance to ever have those experiences again.

Your subconscious mind brought the scene to life for you.

It was winter and you'd just arrived home. Your clothes were ruined and you had the faint memory that your day had been pretty mediocre, if not terrible. After finding that nothing in your home was clean enough to wear, you stripped out of the ruined clothes and grabbed the first half-decent items you could get your hands on; a pair of shorts and a plain shirt. Obviously that wasn't enough for you to keep the cold at bay. You could recall the feeling of goosebumps on your skin as you threw on the fluffiest jacket you owned and a pair of slippers to protect your feet from the chilled floor.

Being too lazy to do much else you sat as close to your heater as you dared. As warmth filled the house you felt your body loosen. Being home was great; you couldn't remember what your home looked like or if anyone else lived with you, but it was great. It was your space; a place to wind down. Your home was somewhere you belonged and your dreamy mind took the time to revel in the memory of the feeling. You were ready to sit back and relax after such a hard day, maybe read something, have a nice nap and all that jazz.

You never had the chance.

The world around you became darker as your dream took a sudden (yet unfortunately expected) turn. The hiss of static made you snap your eyes open. Wavering blocks of white consumed the furniture around you, leaving nothing but darkness behind. You remembered the feeling of panic; though, being both a memory and a dream, the feeling was not nearly as powerful as it had been the first time. Back then it was raw. You had feared for your life as your home was pulled piece by piece into the static, leaving behind only the darkness of the void. As much as you tried to escape it, the white mass and expanding emptiness was taking over the entire world. Soon you ran out of space and the static was lapping at your skin. You knew then that it would consume you too.

But then something strange happened. The crackling static ate the world out from under you, but it did not harm you at all. In fact, you didn't even fall to your death once the ground disappeared. For a long while you were left suspended in the darkness, shivering from the lack of warmth, but also aware that the cold no longer existed either. When the static finally vanished from the edges of your devoured world, the void began to peel away. As the darkness gave way to bright white you thought you had died and were seeing 'the light' that led to the afterlife. You had never been so wrong.

That brightness had been the anti-void and from that moment on it had become your personal hell. You couldn't tell how long you'd been there, but it felt like forever. Not only was there no day or night cycle but you also did not age or require food and drink. The 'ground' only existed if you believed it did and if you didn't you would get the sensation that you were falling without ever really going anywhere. There was no up or down, no noise or temperature, no gravity, no substance- nothing.

Sometimes you wondered if the dark void that had disintegrated would have been more welcoming than the anti-void. At least it had been a part of your universe; even if it existed simply to fill in the negative space of your world's structure. In the brief moment you had felt your universe's void before it dissolved because of its lost connection with the reality it was attached to, you had felt a pressure in it and heard a wind that wasn't technically present. That was at least something. In the anti-void you had nothing, except for the rare times when-

"Oof!"

Something landed hard on your back, waking you up from your dream. You were irritated at the interruption. The dream hadn't been pleasant but it had at least distracted you. How often was it that you could relive your old memories? The answer was not often. You'd forgotten most of your past, the world you had lived in and how you had come to be. Heck, you weren't entirely sure that the dream you'd been having was completely accurate; maybe you didn't like your old home or you hadn't been relaxing that day and actually cleaned your clothes like a boring and responsible person. But allowing your mind to conjure up mixtures of various fragmented memories and comfortable lies was the only way you could actually feel anything anymore. You didn't care how real it was, only that it helped you to stop thinking about your surroundings.

"Y͟ou͝ ca̢n͘ s̨tay h̴ère w̴i͜t́h ͜t͡he͘ ̧ot͢her ͠glitch unt́il̴ I͢ ͡d͜ec͏įde̡ w̵hat ̨t͏o̧ ͟d͞o̧ ̨wit͟h ̧y̨ou.͢ O̡r̵ you ̀c͢an̷ ́j̡u̷s̵t ḑi̢e. You̸r c͜hoi͡ćè."

Ignoring the weight that had landed on you and was now pushing itself off, you kept your eyes firmly closed and tried to will yourself back into the dark and merciful depths of slumber. Whatever or whoever had been thrown at you started to yell as your captor disappeared.

You inwardly groaned. It seemed the new trophy had some anger and denial still in them.

You pulled the hood of your coat over your head and pulled your body tighter into itself to block out the noise; it would only keep you awake.

Unfortunately for you, the movement drew the attention of the new arrival. As soon as they worked out they wouldn't be able to track down their captor (which was pretty quickly; whoever they were they must be a smart cookie) they turned to you and began to do the thing you hated most: grab and shake you.

"what's going on!? where is this? how do I get back?!"

You groaned and pulled yourself into an even tighter ball.

"oh, sh-shit, sorry, are ya hurt?"

You grunted in response and dared to hope that it was enough to get the new guy off your case.

You really needed to stop hoping for stuff.

Either out of genuine concern or selfish desperation they circled around you and tried to quickly but gently roll you over onto your back. You hissed with irritation as you tried your hardest to stay curled up in yourself. Annoyingly, the more you resisted the more persistent the nudges became.

Eventually you became so irritated that you said screw it and used the one trick that always guaranteed your escape from situations like these; utilising the strange rules of the anti-void to free fall away from your problems.

As soon as you imagined the feeling of yourself falling, the invisible ground you had been sleeping on ceased to exist. As the hands gripping you gave another strong push you allowed it to roll you over into the nothingness and began to drop. Unfortunately, contrary to your plan, the hands didn't let go of you as you began to plummet through the vast whiteness, dragging your new and terrified 'friend' with you.

"shit, shit, _shit_!"

You let out a huff as you felt another body pressed itself terrified against yours. Pointy fingers quickly skidded around from your arms to dig into your back, hugging you in a death grip. Despite your earlier internal complements on the person's quick deductions, you got the feeling that the new trophy wasn't as level-headed as some of the others who'd previously been trapped in the anti-void with you. You did nothing to struggle against the vice-like embrace as you continued to plummet to nowhere, your unwanted passenger cursing and flailing as they rushed to think of a solution to your seemingly unstoppable freefall.

Ugh. Well, if your go-to plan of dropping out unexpectedly wasn't going to work, you'd have to take the direct approach.

Even though you really hated the direct approach.

With a thought you stopped your descent. The screaming bundle of limbs, however, didn't know that the anti-void was entirely controlled by internal perspective, and so continued to fall. The only reason they didn't continue speeding through the white nothingness without you was the fact that their grip was incredibly good. The sudden stop caused their arms to slip upwards from where they had been squeezing around your midsection and they flipped upside down before managing to snag onto your jacketed shoulders. For the first time you tilted your head back to look at the newcomer's face.

They were of a short and broad build and wore a plain shirt and blue hoodie. Their dangling legs were slightly covered by black basketball shorts and their feet by pink house slippers. A permanent grin covered their face but did nothing to hide the distress and alarm conveyed by their eyes and the sweat on their brow. The most noticeable trait about them, however, was the fact that they were made entirely of bones. The guy was a living, breathing skeleton; a skeleton monster in fact.

You were not surprised in the slightest.

"ah! h-hey, buddy, m-mind givin' a guy a hand here? 'm not usually the kind to go fallin' for someone when i've just met 'em, b-but, uh-"

"You're not falling." you said, barely amused. The skeleton stared back at you with panicked little pinpricks of light which acted as his eyes in his pitch black sockets. It was obvious he thought you were nuts.

"wh- yes! yes i am! i'm- you're not fallin' anymore but i am!"

"You're not falling," you repeated, "How do you even know that direction is down?"

There was a pause where your new skeletal shoulder accessory looked around at the anti-void. You could tell that it was the first time he was actually taking it in due to the expressions that flitted over his face in rapid succession. Fear, trepidation, curiosity, awe, unease- he looked at you and you casually tilted your feet so it looked like you were miming standing on solid ground. From another perspective it would look like you were standing normally and the skeleton was falling upwards.

Finally his features hit comprehension.

You almost could have applauded the guy as he gravitated himself towards your feet so he was standing on the same level of nothingness that you were; if not for him figuring it out so quickly, then for managing to do it gently (though you did use to get a kick out of the ones who realised all the anti-void crap too quickly and ended up smacking themselves hard into whatever surface they imagined there to be).

You stood silently and shoved your hands into your pockets as the rattled (ha...) looking skeleton breathed hard with his eyes squeezed shut. One of his bony hands was still clutched tightly onto the open end of your fuzzy coat and you allowed him the small mercy of continuing to bunch the cloth in his hand while he tried to mentally ground himself.

After a while (which could have been anywhere from a few minutes to several hours; time wasn't anything more than a concept, honestly) it seemed the guy had finally pulled himself together enough to speak to you.

"hey, s-so, heh, mind helping a guy out?" he wheezed, "i need to get back- back to where i was before. that guy swooped in, one who looks a lil like me, yeah?... not sure what happened, but he took me here and i need a way out."

You sighed heavily and gently pulled the skeletal hand off of your coat.

"Listen to me," you said seriously, "'cause I'm only going to say this to you once: there's no way out of here. This is the anti-void. This is out. Of Everything."

Wide eye sockets stared at you, fearful yet still uncomprehending.

"the void? but I should be able to-"

"No, not the void; the anti-void. A void would be a part of your universe's structure. It's right on the boundaries but it still belongs there. This is beyond that."

"... how do I get back?"

You closed your eyes. This was the part you hated the most, but maybe if you didn't look at the poor guy's face it wouldn't be so bad.

"There's nothing left for you to go back to. The only reason you can be here is if your universe was erased. It happens. But lucky for you, you're a monster; once you let that info sink in you'll be able to turn to dust. It'll feel like forever but there'll be an end for you."

You waited for a reaction. Screaming, anger, tears, cries of _That's not true/fair!_ or _You're a liar!_ \- but nothing came. Maybe you had been right from the beginning; this one was clever and observant.

With your eyes still closed you turned away from the skeleton and began to walk.

"Maybe, if you wish hard enough, when you die you'll see your world again. It's not a realistic thought but..."

You shut your mouth. Why had you started talking again? Weren't you supposed to be walking off into the distance so you could sleep in peace like you wanted?

"Ha... nevermind."

You set off again, not daring to look back.

That guy wasn't your problem. You didn't need to console him with impossible theories. He was the same as everyone else who had been trapped with you in the past.

And like them, he wouldn't last for long.


	2. for (sleep) if (alone) continue

This was taking longer than you'd expected.

The new guy was weird. He didn't scream or cry or lie down and give up; at least, from what you could gather from an outside perspective. He wasn't talking to you (which was fine so far) but he was hanging around, never any more than a few arm's lengths away. You kept expecting him to walk over to you and start trying to coax you into helping him or something else impossible. Or maybe he'd just snap and try to attack you... Wouldn't be the first time something like _that_ has happened.

Point was, you couldn't sleep properly while he was hanging around. The anticipation of knowing that he would try to interact with you somehow, sometime, was keeping you awake and on edge.

You set out a silent huff. Maybe this was his plan all along? To just stand by you until his presence nagged at your conscience enough to finally get up and do something? Did he want to drive you to your wit's end so he could manipulate you? You just wanted to sleep!

Damn him.

"OKAY, _fine_ , what do you _WANT_!?"

You surprised yourself with how loud you yelled. Sure, you'd been pent up with all your paranoia and irritation for who knew how long by now, but it was only as your voice ripped through the anti-void that you realised just how much you'd been seething in silence.

Your sudden angry scream also startled the skeleton a few paces away from you. He jumped about three feet in the air and looked around wide-eyed (if you weren't still simmering with built up rage you might have poked fun at him for it). Once he'd regained his bearings he rubbed at his eyes groggily and calmly turned to look at you.

 _Hey, hold on a minute_ -

"Were you asleep?" you asked from your position on the floor.

"weren't you?" he responded with a yawn.

"You're standing."

"tends to happen when you have legs."

Your anger at the guy increased tenfold. Here you were, curled up in your coat on the non-existent floor, trying and failing to slip back into your dreams and _he_ was the one managing to steal a nap. And while standing, no less.

 _Bastard_.

"Go away."

You watched as the skeleton chuckled, hands shoved in his pockets and eye sockets somehow crinkled in amusement.

"what, that's it?" he laughed at you, "you were almost poetic last time compared to this. don't you have anythin' better?"

"Oh, so you're the eloquent one now, huh? Could have fooled me with the way you were acting earlier!"

"yeah, well, i was a little _rattled_ at the time. heh…"

The weak joke was met with silence as you watched the skeleton monster's eye-lights dim. It seemed as though he was finally letting his thoughts drift back to how he'd ended up in the anti-void and what exactly he had lost.

About time.

Well, you had no intention of interrupting the natural course of things. You rolled back onto your side, facing away from your unwanted company, and tried to make yourself reasonably comfortable. Maybe once the guy finally had his existential breakdown you could catch up on all the sleep he made you miss. Not that it really mattered if you could 'catch up' on it or not. There was no such thing as 'time' where you were so the concept of wasting it was impossible. That in turn meant that 'losing sleep' wasn't a thing because that would imply there was time allocated for being awake or vice versa. But if time wasn't a concept then you supposed that sleep was basically a free action to be performed whenever-

"what's your name?"

"... What?"

You'd been so involved in your theoretical thoughts that the sudden question caught you a bit off guard. So much so that you sat up again to look the skeleton in the eye as if to say ' _Why the_ hell _would you ask me_ that _?_ '.

He didn't really seem to care about your questioning look and just shrugged.

"i just thought about it and realised that i didn't ask your name. not the first time i've done that to a human but i kinda had a reason for that one, so-"

"Why do you care what my name is?" you interrupted, not caring at all about whatever speil the guy was about to go on.

Again you received an (outwardly) carefree shrug, "figured that if we're stuck together for a while here we might as well get to know each other."

"'A while'," you repeated slowly with a bitter smile on your face, "you really think you're only going to be stuck here for 'a _while_ '"

You lazily pulled yourself to your feet, stretching carefully before turning on your new skeletal 'friend'. So that was why he was still alive and hanging around you. He really _was_ in denial. It seemed that by you trying to simplify your explanation so you could get back to napping, you had accidentally allowed the reality of the situation to skip over the poor guy's skull. As much as it irritated you, you would have to clear things up a little. Better to have the guy dust himself now than get used to having him around and then suddenly-

…

Running your hands through your hair you sighed, "Listen, buddy, I said I wouldn't repeat myself but I guess it was too little and too much all at once, huh?" With slow and calculated steps you began walking closer to the monster, speaking in the clearest tone possible. This situation required that you bring out the big guns. You had to make sure the message really stuck this time.

"You." _Right foot forward._

"Don't have". _Left foot forward._

"A home." _Right._

"Anymore." _Left._

"Everyone that you knew and everything that existed…" _Stop. Pause for effect._ "... Is _dead_."

You punctuated your words by leaning down so you were level with him eye to socket. Staring directly into the tiny lights in the skeleton's skull you could catch the way they flickered with hidden emotions. It seemed your performance was having its intended effect. With a whisper, you dealt what would surely be the killing blow; "Do you understand?"

The silence was deafening, but you were used to it. For a long time you continued to stare into the darkness of those sockets. Part of you was enraptured in the fact that you were able to gaze at something that was neither yourself nor the white of the anti-void; the other part was struggling with guilt.

You had never wanted to play the bad guy, even in the beginning. You knew that your words were cruel, heartless and designed to drive the poor monster to suicide...

But it was a _mercy_.

Everything you said was a cold and bitter truth and it was better that the guy get it through his thick skull now than spend _god knows_ how long hoping and struggling, only to discover that there was no hope. The anti-void was as empty and uncaring as the few who dared to exist within it. You knew that better than most ever would.

Seeing that you weren't going to get a response and not caring if you ever would, you straightened yourself and began to leave. Maybe this time you would be left alone and you could finally get some shuteye.

"... so, anyway, what's your name?"

 _Oh for pity's sake!_

" _Really_?" You asked, spinning around again in agitation, "What the _hell_ do you think you're going to achieve by asking me that!? Do you still think that I can help you somehow? Are you trying to distract yourself from the truth? I know it's a hard pill to swallow, but _seriously_ -"

"just curious, is all."

The way that he tilted his head slightly as though he really meant what he'd said had you standing there in disbelief. How could someone, a monster no less, have the truth laid out so plainly before them and still manage to dodge the grief and existential meltdown that usually came after? How was he not crying? Or calling you out for being such a heartless bastard?

You'd met some casual-acting trophies in the past, but this guy took the cake.

You scrunched your eyes shut in frustration; you were too tired for this kinda crap. If the guy was going to remain so persistently in a haze of denial, then it would be easier to just give in and answer his stupid little question. Maybe he would be disappointed enough with the answer that he'd shut up and leave you alone.

"I don't remember."

The skeleton's eye sockets seemed to widen at your exasperated admission.

"you don't remember your own name?"

"Gimme a break, I've been here a long time." You shrugged in a way that was more like letting your arms weakly flop at your sides, "'S not like I get to introduce myself to a lot of people."

"how long?"

"Psh, ' _a while_ '?" you offered with a bitter smirk. You felt yourself grow even more smug as you saw the skeleton subtly react with distaste to your sarcasm. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to deter him from talking to you entirely.

"if you've been here so long and you obviously hate it then why are you still-"

"Alive? It's almost impossible to kill yourself here if you're human. Monsters like you can usually just have one huge crisis and it's all over; you fall down 'cause your Souls were never designed to take that kind of grief. Humans and other beings, well, we have it a bit harder. Some manage to use the rules of the anti-void to splat themselves to death. They imagine falling and then a surface to smack into… but a human like me can't do that. Got that Determination to live, you know? Every time I'm so close and then it kicks in at the last second and I'm still…"

You drifted off into a mumble as soon as you realised what you were saying. Damn, you hadn't meant to get on a roll like that. Talking always made you reflect on things you didn't want to. But it was too late now as you were already sinking deep into your fractured memories.

You couldn't remember when you had learned about Determination. You only knew that it was a force that kept you from escaping the hell that was your life. The anti-void reacted to the perspective and will of whoever was in it. Several times you had been set to splatter or crush yourself simply by imagining the force of the anti-void being strong enough to kill you, only for that damned human Determination that sat dormant in your Soul to give you that one unwanted millisecond of well timed hesitation…

The best you had ever done was knock yourself unconscious a few times.

"that's… really rough, buddy."

The words were soft and you accepted them. They didn't make things any better but the acknowledgement brought you out of your dark thoughts and back to the present. You realised that you had balled up your fists sometime during your bitter reminiscing. As you uncurled them you could feel the areas where your fingernails had no doubt left deep crescent marks on your palms.

Sticking a weak smile on your face you let out an unenthusiastic chuckle.

"Yeah, that's an understatement."

Due to the way that the anti-void worked you couldn't hear the skeleton's footsteps as he walked up to you. You did, however, hear the soft rustling of his clothes and movement of his joints as he approached. You quickly looked up and glared, stopping the guy in his tracks. He looked… abashed? Pitying? You didn't really know and you didn't want any of it.

"i think i understand where you're coming from now…" he sighed, scratching the back of his skull and looking away as though he was a child admitting they were guilty about something, "the bitter warnings, the way ya been ignoring me, your whole… standoff-ish attitude. i get it. you've been all alone and struggling and suddenly i drop in when ya probly just got used to being isolated. must be jarring for ya, huh? you don't want me around so i'll leave you be; but not without you tellin' me as much as you can about this place."

"... Don't _patronise_ me."

You felt your face twist a little in irritation. Who did this guy think he was, your therapist? You didn't need some skeleton monster to suddenly pop into your miserable life and psychoanalyse you when you already knew you were messed up. Even if you'd accidentally let yourself go on a little rant it didn't mean that you wanted to be pitied. Still…

"You _promise_ you'll stop pestering me if I tell you everything I know?"

You watched the monster squirm uncomfortably under your hard gaze. You could tell just by his reaction that he was the kind of guy who took his promises seriously. At the very least you knew that you had that on your side. Lucky you.

Finally he came to a resolution, "k, i promise."

"Right then. Pop a squat, bonehead, you won't wanna fall asleep standing during this one 'cause I definitely _won't_ be repeating myself again."

You were already slumped from pre-exhaustion. This was going to take a long time, you could feel it. You were being honest when you said that you didn't want to explain everything; it would take up time that you could be spending sleeping and trying to ignore how hopeless you were.

Then again, wasn't it you who'd had the thought that since time barely existed in the anti-void, 'wasting time' was an almost impossible feat? It wasn't as if it would matter much in the end. Whatever you did would still hopefully lead up to your end. Sleeping, talking; what did it matter what you did in the meantime as long as it distracted you?

Well, you knew why talking mattered... but you wouldn't admit your weaknesses out loud. You hated to even admit to _yourself_ just how painfully close your new one-man audience had come to dissecting your every action and the reason you were so closed off. The more words you exchanged with the guy, the more you became aware of just how sharp-minded he was. His knack for observation was the sharpest you had encountered yet.

As you sat cross legged on the non-existent ground, the skeleton across from you pulled his left hand out of his hoodie pockets and held it out to you.

"by the way, i know you didn't ask or nothin', but my name's-"

"Sans."

"... how-"

"Lucky guess. Save the questions 'til after I'm done, kay?"


	3. release memory using free () function

_Aaah new chapter, new chapter! Release the stockpile before I lose my internet! Go, go GO!_

* * *

 _It was long, long ago that you lost your own world. So long, in fact, that you couldn't remember who you had been or what that world had even been like-_

"yeesh, pal, that 's a long time."

"... Did I say you could interupt me?"

"oh, sorry. go on."

 _Anyway, back to what you_ could _remember..._

 _You could vaguely recall the feeling of floating in a dark void before it was ripped away and you were left in the bitter white of the anti-void. As alien and unwelcoming as it had seemed at the time, the darkness had been the last remnants of your reality before it completely fell apart at the seams. White static filled the edges of your vision for the longest time, travelling further and further away as the matter of your universe was devoured. That, at least, was an experience that you never truly forgot._

 _Just like what happened immediately afterwards._

 _As soon as the last of your universe had been destroyed you had the displeasure of meeting the one who had caused it all: Error._

"that's the guy, right? the one who looks like-"

"Didn't I _just_ tell you to stay quiet?"

"look, i got questions-"

"Then maybe listen and you'll get answers to 'em! Jeez, you-! Ugh, just- only ask things if you think it's _completely necessary_ OK?"

 _Ahem… You had a lot of choice words at your disposal to describe the being that called himself Error: a complete psycho, for one. He was basically an overpowered sociopath with a hatred of everything that wasn't already dead._

 _Error was Sans shaped-_

"what the hell do you mean sans shaped-?"

" _Unless_ it is important. You. Ssssshut. Your face. I mean what I say. You want an elaboration?"

"uh, yeah, but-"

 _That meant he had the appearance of a skeleton monster who was almost identical to a Sans in height and shape. The main difference was their colour scheme: where Sans had normal white bones and a blue hoodie, Error was mainly black with a scattering of red and yellow over certain parts of his body- specifically his fingers, teeth and eyes._

"i know what i look like, _pal_ , i just wanted to know how you-"

 _Speaking of his eyes, Error had very noticeable blue strings hanging out of his. You assumed it was a part of his magic from the way he could manipulate them to grab people- specifically their Souls- and painfully trap, manipulate or even kill them. He never liked to actually touch other people and anyone stupid enough to touch_ him _payed for it dearly._

 _Despite all of that, the scariest thing about Error was undoubtedly his ability to dissolve entire worlds into nothing. That was how you had ended up in the anti-void. It was also how everyone you had ever met afterwards had ended up there too. Error just liked to take entire realities and wipe them out of existence with no if's or but's. It seemed he did this purely out of hate and the need to destroy the things he called 'glitches' or 'anomalies'._

 _You had never really understood what he meant by those two things, but you guessed that from Error's point of view everything that could be considered 'alive' was a glitch. Anomalies, however, seemed to be a bit of a different story._

 _As far as you could tell, Anomalies had something to do with red hearts, or 'Souls' as they were known. Error collected a lot of them, hiding them away in a specific pocket of the anti-void that you had only ever seen once or twice. Each heart was wrapped up tight with dozens of his trademark blue strings. A majority of the red hearts were what you understood to be human Souls, though you could vaguely recall seeing some that weren't human, or at least some that were just very odd. Variation in shades was common but the more eye-catching Souls dripped with unknown goo, changed colours or were sometimes different shapes (you could have sworn you saw a soul shaped like a small sapling with three red leaves at one point). Still, the vast majority were undoubtedly human Souls._

"..."

 _You had once entertained the thought that maybe Error simply hated humans above all else; it would certainly explain why it was so hard for your kind to escape their misery while in the anti-void. It was as though even the realm that Error lived in supported his cruel tendencies. But that was just a bitter theory you had come up with before you found out otherwise._

 _The reason behind the collection was that each Soul existed as an individual trophy from an obliterated world. While no one would argue if you said that Error was a simple lunatic who collected the essence of his victims as proof of his 'hunts', that wouldn't be the whole story. In truth, Error's memory was complete shit._

"huh, really?"

"Oh yeah, definitely. Guy's a complete mess. Not that I think you could find a way to use that against him, but the signs are pretty obvious."

 _More than once you had seen him floating lost around in the vast whiteness of the anti-void, spinning circles whenever he forgot where he was going. More than once Error would start gloating about his latest genocide to whatever poor sap had been left over from the destruction, only for him to trail off mid-boast and simply leave. More than once he had attacked you, demanding to know how you had entered his realm, completely forgetting that he had brought you there himself._

 _Strangely enough he would always remember who you were right before he did any real damage. You were Error's prisoner in the anti-void just like every other unfortunate survivor who ended up there, to do with as he pleased until he decided otherwise. Even if you didn't understand_ why _._

"so you've been here long enough to know his habits and behavior, but not long enough to know why people like you 'n me get trapped here with him in the first place."

"Yeah, I pretty much stopped paying attention after a while. The only reason that I can even remember that other people come through here is 'cause he goes out of his way to throw them at me every time."

"really? every time?"

"Yes. Stop laughing."

 _It was just one of Error's hobbies; besides the collection of Souls, he also collected living people. You honestly didn't know why he did it when he already had the Souls from the 'anomalies'. He hated being touched and never showed any interest in conversation (besides laughing at his latest victim), so he wasn't doing it for the company. The people he kept trapped in the anti-void were always the survivors from whatever universe he had recently erased, though he rarely ever kept more than two individuals alive at a time._

 _From the way that Error so flippantly mocked and killed the living trophies he kept imprisoned in the anti-void, you knew that his actions were based purely in cruelty. Though sometimes you did wonder if there was another reason._

"uh, ya mind if i have a little input?"

"... Fine."

"heh, well, 's just that ya said the guy's constantly mocking or murderin' people, but when i got dragged out here he didn't really say anythin' to me… it kinda seemed as though he didn't even care?"

"Yeah. It's rare, but he does that sometimes. It's like… he has better things to do? But it still doesn't make sense…"

 _A lot of the time it seemed as though Error couldn't be bothered with the survivors he left to wander the anti-void. It was as if he considered them to be either a burden or simple pests; like flies that had somehow made it into his house and annoyed him by repeatedly slamming their germ-covered faces into his windows. Despite the glee he displayed while taunting his victims, it was as if he truly hated leaving anyone alive, but held back on his murderous tendencies for some unknown reason. You were a pretty good example._

 _Like you, many a human victim had found it hard to kill themselves in the anti-void. Unlike you, however, some of those humans had hunted Error down and managed to piss him off enough that he snapped and killed them. It wasn't a painless end but it worked. Well, it worked most of the time. Some people had to make many, many attempts before they succeeded. You yourself had never managed to convince the guy to kill you, no matter how hard you tried._

"... that's horrible. i'm really sorry you-"

"Oh man, _just_ when I was starting to believe you could say things that weren't annoying or pointless! Looks like we're gonna have to start the counter again from zero!"

"fuckin' _jeez-_ i get it!"

 _The point was, if Error was_ really _only keeping people prisoner just to torment them, why were you still alive? Even if you couldn't get Error to try and kill you, asking another survivor like yourself would only result in blue strings shredding whoever attacked you. You knew the guy hated your guts just as much as any other prisoner he kept in the anti-void. It made no sense that you would continuously be 'spared' while so many others were slaughtered without a second thought._

 _You still didn't know the pattern to Error's murders and you were long past the point of having the energy to continue caring. The anti-void was endless, inescapable, and seemingly ruled over by a mass-genociding basket-case with some kind of monster Alzheimer's disease._

 _Anyone who ended up there could only pray that they would be allowed to die, just as their universe had before them._

…

"... so that's it, huh?" Sans asked you, staring blankly into the whiteness around you as he digested your story.

"Yep, that's all of it. Unless I forgot something. But hey, you could always wander off and maybe go find something I missed."

Now that you were done monologuing you lazily flopped onto your back. When was the last time you'd been so active? You had talked so much that you could almost consider it exercise. You deserved a nap.

"there's still one thing you haven't cleared up yet."

You groaned but didn't bother to lift your head, "Yeah?"

"how'd you know my name?"

"Ha. Like I said, lucky guess." You rolled your head to the side to look up at the sitting skeleton, "Did ya hear the part where I told you about other people being trapped here before?"

"yeah?" said Sans who was looking down at you quizzically.

"Well, up until a while ago, you lived in your own universe. The same happens with everyone else: one survivor per destroyed world. It's just multiverse theory. 'Cept I guess it's not just a theory to us…" you laughed dryly to yourself, "Point is, you're not the first Sans I've met. I mean, sometimes I meet someone who has a different name or is a different species or gender or whatever- point is that Error is kind of a crazy version of a Sans, so he has some kinda bias when he picks a survivor to keep as a trophy. I think that it's like how the Souls he collects are mostly red and human. When it comes to his prisoners Error likes to focus in on people who are just _you_ from different realities."

"what? he collects… _me_? from other- s-so you mean… you're...?" Sans was suddenly staring at you with wide sockets. It took you a moment thanks to your odd point of view from the imagined floor you were lying on, but you finally caught on to his train of thought...

… And immediately burst into laughter.

"No, no! Not _me_!" You chuckled from the floor, "I might not remember my name but I'm pretty sure it's not Sans."

Above you, Sans looked kind of offended. Obviously he'd thought that if everyone else you'd met in the anti-void was a different version of him, then logically you must be a 'Sans' too. It was an easy conclusion to come to if you didn't know better. Unfortunately for him, you _did_ know better, and that was what made it so funny.

"you said that some of the people who come through aren't named Sans though…"

"Yeah, but I meant like Error." You clarified, still snickering, "like you'd call him Error!Sans. Some of the others I met were called things like 'Blueberry!Sans' or 'G!Sans'. Sometimes you can go even further: Edgy!G!Sans, Genocide!Sugar!Sans, and so on- But that's just to clarify what subsets they are. So you get people coming through who introduce themselves as things like Blue, Sweets, Geno- whatever. But no matter the name they're still a part of the Sans base. I'm not a Sans subset because I have a completely different base from you."

Sans was nodding even though you could see that he had no clue what any of the subsets you had listed meant. But instead of asking what the heck a 'Blueberry' or a 'Geno' was, he seemed to be analysing you instead.

"then, if you're not a, ah, 'Sans'... what are ya?"

"Something called a Reader."

"the hell's a reader?" Sans asked with a confused look.

You smirked, "No idea. But if I had a name like you it'd be set up like 'insert-subset-here'!Reader, not 'insert-subset-here'!Sans. 'Reader' is my base, so my most important traits- like my personality or whatever role I had in my universe- that would be my subset. I, uh, kinda forgot what my subset was though..."

"huh," Sans quietly hummed in slight understanding, "but my name is already sans, so what am i classified as?"

"You're what's called a 'Classic!Sans'. It's not just to do with your name though. For example, if someone ended up here and had a foul attitude and wore red, they'd be called a 'Fell!Sans' even if they introduced themselves as just 'Sans'. You meet the criteria for a Classic: you're just a basic guy with a blue jacket who exists."

"hey, i resemble that remark." Sans chuckled above you.

There was silence after that. The skeleton was obviously mulling over what you'd said, staring silently out into nothing. You, on the other hand, were feeling quite relaxed. You hadn't been able to pinpoint just what kind of 'Sans' the monster was from your first few interactions, but now you were sure he was a Classic you could finally calm down. It was very unlikely that a true Classic!Sans would attack you for no reason while you lay around.

Very early on you had learned that looks could be incredibly deceiving. Sometimes you had met a Blueberry that acted more like a Fell type, or a Classic that had the personality of a G. If you were going to be honest, Classics were generally the easiest to deal with.

Horrors, Fells, and Edgies were violent and often tried to maim you for random reasons. Blueberries, Gs and Bitties were more likely to bother you, always demanding attention and making you feel guilty until they wandered off or fell down. So yeah, Classics were just fine in your book; they were quiet and gave up faster than most. They were also the most thoughtful in the way that they usually tried to place themselves out of your line of sight when they completely gave up. It was always a bit sickening when you fell asleep with a monster in front of you and woke up with a face full of grey dus-

"maybe it's 'cause you're a reader?" Sans suddenly muttered beside you.

"What's 'cause I'm a Reader?" you mumbled back, half asleep.

"the reason that you're stuck here and that error prick won't kill ya. maybe it's 'cause you're a reader when everyone else seems to be a sans like me." he elaborated as you yawned.

"Huh, yeah. Maybe you're right. That sucks."

"you don't care? i thought-"

"Nah, I'm past caring," you sighed, "knowing won't make a difference at this point. It doesn't help me escape or anything. I mean, where would I go anyway? Everyone I probably knew is dead and I have no idea who I am. At this point I'm just kinda waiting for my turn…"

You stared blankly with half-lidded eyes into the vastness above you. Much like you couldn't tell how long you'd existed within the anti-void, it was impossible to tell how long you would have to wait until you were finally erased from it. You knew that it would have to be eventually, and if not you would just have to lose your mind so you didn't have to deal with eternity. If you'd been a monster you were sure you would have crumbled to dust long ago.

Everything was just so… hopeless.

Beside you Sans' clothes rustled as he stood. Finally. It seemed that it was time for him to leave you be now. With him gone you might even be able to fall asleep again.

It was… kind of a melancholy feeling. Past experience had taught you that even if you befriended a Sans it wouldn't really matter in the long run. Anyone who ended up in the anti-void had nowhere to go and nothing to do until they were inevitably killed or worse. You had a vague memory of heartbreak when such things had happened in the past.

As interesting as he'd been, this Classic Sans was just another blip in the vast whiteness. In time you would forget about him and your guilt for being so rude would fade away until the _next_ time Error suddenly left you with another survivor.

You let out a sleepy sigh right before a boney finger jammed itself into your ribs.

" _Augh_ , what the _hell_?" You hissed, reflexively curling in on yourself to protect your fleshy body. You looked at the skeleton standing above you and flinched back slightly as he casually held his left hand out to your face.

"heh, sorry 'bout that," he winked, "can't have ya fallin' asleep when we've got places to be."

…

"... _What_?"


	4. charbuf1 (Classic) charbuf2 (Spoilers)

This Chapter has now been edited for slight grammatical mistakes.  
Don't worry though, the content hasn't changed.

* * *

"Oh my god, you're serious, aren't you?"

"yep."

You stared up at the skeleton like he was insane. Just what did he think he was doing? You had been giving every signal and showing every sign that you did _not_ want him near you.

"No," you spat up at him from the floor, "Just- just _no_! Are you stup- How the hell…? _Why-?_ "

You continued to sputter in confused anger. Honestly, you could deal with violence; you could deal with ignorance; you could deal with guilt trips and manipulative flattery and begging. Hell, you could even deal with denial. But _this_...

What the hell could you even _call_ this?

It was obvious that the guy understood the situation, so he wasn't naive about what being in his current position meant. His home, his entire universe and everyone he might have known or loved was deader than dead. And yet he'd said he had 'places to be'. In fact, he'd said ' _WE_ have places to be'. That made no sense! Not only was there nowhere for _him_ to go, there was nowhere for _you_ to go either! So what kind of imaginary land did he think you'd be going to _together!?_

How could someone prove themselves to be smart and still be so- so- _unbelievably stupid?_

"c'mon. you can't stay here forever." the skeleton continued to smile down at you, wiggling his fingers in your face.

"Yes I can!" you snapped back, "In fact, that's the entire point of this place! You just stay here. _Forever_. Did you just forget everything I said as soon as I closed my mouth!?"

"no, i know what you said and i believe all of it. i just mean that you can't stay here, in this exact spot."

"Why would it matter what spot I'm in? Everything here's the same!"

"well, now it looks like _you're_ the one forgetting something." Sans winked.

You growled. Were you forgetting something? It was no secret that there was a lot of stuff you couldn't remember, but what about recently? Had something happened? Had you promised something? As much as large clumps of empty space seemed to fill your past, you were pretty sure that your short term memory was at least decent. At the very least you hadn't reached Error's level yet…

Still standing above you with his hand outstretched, Sans let out a deep sigh.

"that place you said you saw… the one with the red souls. i want you to take me there."

"What? I never said I'd do that!"

"well i'm askin' ya to do it anyway."

"No!" Why was this skeleton so frustrating!? What made him think that you wanted to do anything for him? You'd already told him everything you could remember so why couldn't he just stop pestering- oh wait, that was it!

Glaring at him steadily you set your tone to the most serious one you had. He was a true Classic, so you knew this move had a 100% success rate.

"You _promised_ that you would stop pestering me. Are you going to _go back on your word?_ "

Checkmate, skeleman. Victory was yours, guaranteed.

Or it would have been if Sans didn't look at you with the most shit-eating grin you'd ever seen in your life.

"ah, ah, ah~ that was only if you told me _everything_ you knew. and i'm pretty sure you just said that there was a possibility that you forgot some stuff. so _technically-_ "

 _This absolutely condescending, good-for-nothing son-of a-!_

"That is sooooo much _bullshit_." You sneered as Sans snickered. There was so much vitriol burning deep in your stomach that you felt as though you were mere seconds away from going supernova. No other Sans in recent memory had made you react this way. You almost couldn't tell if he was truly that infuriating or if you had been trapped long enough to finally experience a violent turning point in your emotions.

Huffing, you turned and flopped heavily onto your side facing away from the infuriating skeleton. There was no way that you were helping him. No way! Sure, his approach was something that you hadn't seen before, but if you could survive it this time you would have the experience to deal with it the next time it happened. That was how the learning process worked, after all. Even if you couldn't remember it you'd probably had to deal with the same emotional shock and imbalance the first time someone cried on you or screamed in your face.

You grunted in displeasure as you felt a weight at your back. It seemed that the Sans had decided to sit down next to your lying form and lean back on you like a human pillow.

"c'mon, read, you've got a lotta time. can't you spare some for your new buddy?" He chuckled and you could feel the shifting of his bones through the back of your coat.

"Do _not_ call me that." You growled.

"whoops, sorry," Sans said, not sounding the least bit sorry at all, "thought you might appreciate a name. guess i was wrong. it's funny though how you said i'm a 'sans' and my name is sans. so maybe if you're a 'reader' your name is actually reader?"

"I don't care. I don't want you to call me anything!"

"well that's just inconvenient. how am i supposed to get your attention if i can't call you anything?"

 _By not trying to get my attention at all._ Your mind bitterly supplied, but you bit your tongue. There was no point in adding fuel to the fire.

As Sans continued to talk at you, you began to zone out. Maybe you could fall asleep just to spite him. You had a feeling that if you tried to free fall away again he might follow you anyway.

As you tried to force yourself to relax and push away your irritation you began to notice a few things. The pressure at your back was almost… nice. Kinda. Maybe it was because it was real; unlike the imaginary surface you were lying on that the anti-void somehow created for you. The magic that flowed through the monster's bones didn't give off quite the same feeling as your heartbeat, but it did give an illusion of warmth. Even the constant string of words coming out of Sans' mouth wasn't too bad once you started to ignore his words and just focus on the tone: smooth, drawling and deep.

Before you knew it you had drifted off into slumber.

...

...

...

You awoke to the sound of a conversation.

At first you thought you must be dreaming. A conversation in the anti-void? Psh, yeah right. That would require more than one person. Besides the Classic Sans that had been recently tossed at you, there was no one around to speak with. Error didn't talk, he _taunted_ , and you were obviously asleep (Did you sleep talk? You weren't actually sure). But as you became more aware you began to make out what was being said.

"so you know where it is?"

"'Course I do! Wouldn't say that I did if it wasn't true, amirite?"

"... i mean, i was already gonna get this human to take me to-"

"Who? You mean my homeslice Read over there? Nah, man. Their memory is hella wack. They probs don't even remember where they saw those lil red Souls."

Oh no. It was _him_.

"... heh. you might be right. i guess i just… ah, i dunno what i thought."

"You can trust me on it, brah. Error's a complete mad dog and Read won't be doin' much to help a bro out unless it involves sleepin'. I'm your main man if you need something!"

"..."

 _Don't do it. Don't listen to him. For god's sake, please don't-_

There was a moment of hesitation from Sans before you felt him lifting himself up and away from you. _No, no, no, why would you believe him-!?_ Before you knew what you were doing you whipped around and grabbed his arm.

Your eyes were still full of sleep and you weren't fully conscious, but you knew you had your eyes wide open and your face was already twisted into the most hateful scowl that a human being could manage. When your eyes finally adjusted so that you could see again, you caught sight of the Classic Sans in your grip trying and failing to flinch away from you. He looked downright terrified of you, but you honestly couldn't care less. Your focus was on someone else right now.

Beyond him was a different Sans dressed in fluorescent clothes with a stupidly high collar sticking out of his jacket, light-up heelies and a backwards hat. He looked as if the worst of 90's fashion had taken a few too many shots at a frat party and vomited him into existence. The sunglasses covering his eyes had multi-coloured text scrawled over the lenses that read: [BUS] [TED].

"Read, amigo, my buddy o' pal!" he smiled while shooting finger guns at you, "Can't believe you actually woke up for a totally awesome fly by from yours truly!"

" _Leave._ "

Your venomous growl was made even more sinister thanks to the weight of your sleep still lying heavy in your throat. The brightly coloured mistake in front of you simply continued to grin, ignoring your hostile tone completely. It would have been impressive if most skeletal Sans' didn't have a permanent smile stuck on their faces anyway.

Though you hadn't intimidated the Sans in front of you, there was at least one skeleton nearby who was rattled by your hostility. You could feel the Classic was desperately trying to slip out of your grasp while your attention was elsewhere. Too bad for him that you had an unbreakable iron grip on his forearm. Sleeping your life away in the void didn't deteriorate your muscles or weaken you, so you didn't have to worry about being overpowered by most Sans types. Besides, unless he had any LV, you were confident that he was one of the subsets with a single HP. There was no way he would struggle too hard if he thought there was a risk of getting hurt.

"Wow, looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of existence~" the 90's disaster chuckled, "Maybe you needed that nap after all. No offence, but you're not looking so _fresh_."

"Is that supposed to be a joke or a threat?" you snarled.

"Me? Threaten the radtastic Read? That would be totally uncool."

You grit your teeth at the nickname. Maybe once upon a time you would have appreciated someone giving you a friendly title. Not anymore though. While Error simply referred to you as a 'glitch', this other… _thing_ , had showed up out of nowhere and decided to give you the most creative name he could be bothered to come up with: Read. Short for Reader.

It wasn't as if it was the worst name imaginable, it was the namer who was the problem. Every time the short form for your Base was so casually thrown out by that fashion disaster you felt nothing but _disgust_.

It was pretty much impossible for you to remember your original name by now, but if by some miracle you discovered your name _had_ been Read, you would disown it on principle alone.

"Come on, brah, lighten up! I was just about to scram anyway. So you can totes chill."

Despite saying that he was going to leave, the guy was doing an awful lot of not moving. He just continued to stand there casually, hands in his pockets and his sunglasses having long since changed back to the [YO] [LO] that you were familiar with. From the outside no one would guess that he was anything but some casual 90's themed douchebag. But you knew better. He was stalling so that he could come up with a way to deal with you.

You had to do something fast. Something that would limit his options considerably. Something that would piss him off just enough to break his persona and ruin his day.

Without releasing the Sans in your grip (and while still keeping the scheming dudebro in your line of sight) you quickly turned your attention on him.

"What did he tell you?" you asked, making the skeleton in your grip flinch again.

"wh-"

"Woah, am I high right now or did I just see Read _talk_ to a dude?"

Ignoring the easy argument bait, you continued to drill the Sans at your side.

"You were right, I forgot to tell you some things. I know this guy. You _can't_ trust him."

"Yikes, that cuts me deep-"

"He offered to take you somewhere, right? Offered to just lead you away to some world or wherever you wanted to go?"

"i-"

"But I bet he didn't bother to tell you _why_ he wants to 'help' you, now did he? I bet he didn't tell you what he _really is_."

You could almost hear the way the eye-searingly styled skeleton wanted to strangle you. It was subtle, but you could see the way he was tensing a little as you continued. Ah~ The only good thing about dealing with someone you hated was watching them squirm whenever you put the pressure on.

"Come on, _Read_ ," he casually drawled, a bit more emphasis on the nickname than was necessary, "you know I wouldn't leave a rad new bro hanging. Unlike the rest of you cool cats hangin' around in this corner of the null-verse, I always introduce myself. I'm Fresh!Sans. The most free flyin' guy on this side of reality."

"A lie by omission," you scoffed.

It was easy to allow yourself to be confident in your actions now that you were winning. The Classic had long since stopped trying to struggle away from you. Now he was observing, trying to decipher what you and the new guy knew before you told him. Even though he was a bit different from what you were used to, this Sans was still pretty smart. He didn't seem the type to try and do anything stupid like run away while there were still unknown variables.

You dared to loosen your hold a fraction and actually look the clueless Sans in the eye as you spoke, silently spitting in the face of your other guest by taking your attention off him.

"The way he says the name makes it sound like he's a Sans. But he's _not_. That thing is a parasite, and its name is Fresh. A creature that can erase a person's personality- their subsets- and replace them with its own. The result is a Fresh!Sans. Behind those stupid glasses is a guy just like you- A Sans… except he's possessed and his Soul is being drained dry by the creature who thinks that _dressing like skittle vomit_ and _speaking like an_ _idiot_ will distract people long enough to not notice that his glasses are broken!"

For a moment, Sans stared at you like you were crazy before shifting his focus onto the thing that called itself Fresh. The usually chatty creature was stone stiff and silent across from you. A pre-victory wave of giddiness rushed through you. There was no way for him to worm out of this one. By calling attention to the fact that there was a Sans living somewhere in the body Fresh had stolen, you had opened up a window of opportunity for their Soul to cry out. You both knew that Fresh had to be quiet and still in order to concentrate on keeping the unfortunate skeleton he'd captured in check, but being either of those things was seriously out of character for him. Any moment now the glasses that would usually switch between [YO] [LO] and [SW] [AG] would spell-

[HE] [LP]

…

[DA] [MN]

You felt Sans jump a bit at your side. Good. That meant he'd seen it too. It was so satisfying to have your point proven for you rather than waste energy fruitlessly trying to convince the new guy. You didn't entirely understand why Fresh kept his stupid glasses when they could give his true nature away at any given moment, but why look a gift horse in the mouth?

"holy shit… you… you're really-? what were you going to do?"

The skeleton stumbled a little in shock but you easily kept him steady. Now that he was 100% on your side, your grip on his arm was acting more as support than a restraint.

A short, hysterical giggle escaped Fresh. His stolen hands were slapped hard over the lenses of his sunglasses, but you both knew he'd already lost. With that same constant smile in place he slowly removed his palms, allowing you to read the words [GAME] [OVER] as he glared at you.

"Read. Buddy. Pal. Amigo. Homeslice. Don't you know how to play _nice_?"

"'Play nice'? How about I give you some advice in a way you'll understand: _Git gud_."

The taunt made Fresh huff out a harsh laugh that made your skin crawl. His 'rad dude' persona was successfully shattered. Any illusion of trustworthiness he had set up with the new Classic Sans was thoroughly destroyed thanks to the unfortunate Soul trapped in his head. There was no point in him putting up a friendly front anymore. From now on any of his typical dudebro banter was likely due to force of habit.

"C'mon, cut a bro some slack," he shrugged, glasses back under control and casually spelling [WHAT] [EVER], "you're not even using that one."

"not using-? hey, i'm not some new toy for you to fight over!"

"Oh man," Fresh laughed again, "Sans, my new dude, let me drop some sick knowledge on ya right now. In this place? You're chopped liver. Only tastier."

"what?"

Wow, yeah, Fresh must have _really_ wanted Error's newest trophy to follow him because he didn't seem to care about how creepy that was _at all_. Obviously he was still going to try and get his hands on the Sans, no matter if he followed willingly or not. Maybe you shouldn't have listened in to his conversation in the first place and just saved yourself the trouble. You could have woken up to the quiet solitude of the anti-void instead. It would have been two birds with one stone: the Classic would leave you and you wouldn't have to deal with your least favourite entity.

But no. You hated Fresh and wanted to screw him over. And you also, maybe, kinda, sorta felt a little bit nauseous at the idea of just _letting_ a Sans wander off with him. You couldn't do that. Not while you were awake.

"Stay close to me," you whispered to Sans as he clutched your arm like a lifeline, "After all, you're his favourite flavour. A real C _lassic_."

The skeleton only gripped you tighter and looked like he was going to be sick. Aw, was he one of the Sans' who didn't like puns? That would be a shame.

"Ah, ah, ah, don't wimp out on me now, _amigo_ ," Fresh chuckled darkly as he began to approach, "you and me? We've got places to be."


	5. remove(unknown Reader) Error return -1

"Brah, brosif, my duderino, why don't you just get back to that sick nap you were havin'?"

You snickered darkly at the hungry parasite's words as you took a step back, the Sans by your side following without hesitation.

For every step you took away from him, Fresh took two steps forward. With how close he was you could easily make out the type of Sans he was possessing; just another dime-a-dozen Classic, just as you'd suspected. You hadn't lied when you said he preferred them. Or maybe they were just easier targets because of how common they were. It was weird how the multiverse was supposed to contain every conceivable possibility, and yet you kept encountering copies of the same person over and over. It made your already dull existence even more predictable.

But that wasn't a problem at the current moment.

"Oh nooo, I'm sorry~ I think I'm too awake now," you sarcastically sing-songed as Fresh continued to approach, "What's the problem? In a rush? Have you got a date? Need to dress to impress? 'Cause let me tell you now; that is _not_ possible in your case. Seriously, you look like you woke up one day and said ' _You know what? I should dress like the aftermath of an unsupervised cocktail drinking contest_!'"

Fresh hissed a dangerous laugh at your insult. Despite knowing that you were meant to be intimidated, you felt a twisted sort of pride. He should be laughing; that was one of your better quips! But it seemed that not everyone shared your sentiments...

"are you crazy?" Sans nervously hissed as he tugged at your sleeve, "do ya really think you should be taunting that thing right now? we need to get outta here!"

You huffed as he continued to pull at your arm, trying to get you moving without attracting Fresh's attention. Part of you recognized that he was new and unfamiliar with the anti-void, and that it was unfair of you to look down on him for not knowing what to do in the current situation. But a much bigger and harsher part prefered to compare him to a naive child who was trying to get their parent's attention. Couldn't he see that the _adults_ were _talking_?

True to your analogy, Sans' attempt at pulling you away wasn't very subtle. Fresh immediately focussed in on the skeleton at your side, posture sliding back into a false casual.

"Aw, c'mon amigo," he smiled darkly at the Classic latched onto your arm, "you can't just leave a bro hangin' like this. 'Sides... ' n."

In an instant he closed the gap between you. You easily predicted the movement and quickly pulled the Classic away from where Fresh had appeared. Sans made an aborted sound of terror as Fresh swiped at him and missed.

Another thing about Fresh was that whenever he possessed someone he instantly kicked up their natural abilities by several notches. Considering that he liked to inhabit Sans, that made him extremely dangerous. It was impossible for you to tell whether the parasite was currently possessing someone who could teleport or was simply very fast; either one was trouble. Put on top of that the fact that his magic changed depending on the abilities of each Sans subset and you were guaranteed a challenge.

Not that you were going to fight him. No, that would be a fruitless effort. What you needed was for the exact opposite to happen.

You wanted _him_ to fight _you_.

Again Fresh seemed to disappear and reappear, now swiping at the Classic from behind you. The creep was far too quick for you the second time and managed to grab the Classic's free arm. He yanked hard, smiling manically as his victim yelped in surprise. Fortunately, Sans managed to keep a tight hold on your wrist- and you on his- so he wasn't completely stolen away.

Both of you stumbled but Sans recovered faster. He tried to pull his arm back from the parasite, aiming it palm outwards like he was going to fire something.

But nothing happened.

Sans froze in shock as Fresh's glasses taunted him with a multi-coloured [HA] [HA]

Before either of them could make another move, you launched at Fresh's arm and ripped it away.

Well, not _really_. You weren't strong enough to do anything like that to him. It was more that Fresh flinched hard enough from the contact of your hand for you to quickly flick him off. He backed up several steps, hissing lowly as he held the area you'd brushed against. You had learned a long time ago that his stance on touch was similar to Error's; neither of them liked to experience it without warning. Doubly so in Fresh's case when it came to you.

Quickly, you pulled Sans in towards you and wrapped as much of your coat around him as possible. It didn't reach all the way, but you made up for it by hugging your arms tightly around his upper body and placing your chin firmly over the top of his skull. In this position you basically acted as a cocoon. You knew there was no way that Fresh could make a grab at the Classic again without accidentally coming into contact with you.

"What's the matter? Lost your nerve?" you taunted as Fresh hesitated. A low tone was being emitted from Fresh's stolen body, almost sounding like a static growl or hiss. You smirked as you watched him carefully take in your stance, trying to find a way past your guard.

Meanwhile, Sans stood frozen in your arms. It was as though he was trying to decide if he should pull away from you or push closer. He seemed to weigh his options a little longer before slowly pressing back into you. Considering how the parasite had reacted just from the tiniest brush of your hand, he was significantly safer in the awkward hug you had suddenly locked him in.

Your grin grew as you stared down Fresh, silently acknowledging Sans' permission to pretty much trap him against you. Despite how little compassion you had shown him, he was trusting you with his life. It almost felt like a compliment, knowing that he at least thought of you as the lesser of two evils.

Across from you, Fresh was seething. Despite the grin, you knew that he was scowling at you somewhere behind those stupid shades. There was a very important reason he didn't like to come into contact with you _specifically_ and you both knew it. It was the same reason that he never led you away like his other victims, and the only thing (other than preference) that prevented him from infecting you.

At any other time, Fresh probably would have backed off only to sneak back while you were asleep or distracted. But today he looked desperate. He was dead set on possessing the Sans that you were so cruelly withholding from him. It only took one good look to tell you why.

His vessel was dying.

Fresh had been very careful before to stand at a distance where you couldn't make out how his bones were beginning to powderise, but now he was found out he didn't care to hide the dust falling from his coat. You'd only seen signs of it once or twice, but you knew that unlike the parasite possessing them, Fresh's vessels couldn't last forever. The skeleton monster he was controlling had obviously reached their limit. By all means the poor thing should have fallen down by now, but Fresh likely wouldn't stop pushing them until he was safely in a new body. He probably didn't have the time necessary to hunt down a new Sans in a random universe so, like a starving vulture, he had come to the anti-void for easier pickings.

Good. Now was the perfect opportunity for you to get some petty revenge.

"Well? Just going to stand there, huh?" you continued to snicker lowly, "Aww, I thought we were _friends_ , Fresh. You're breaking my poor heart."

Both you and Sans watched without moving as Fresh circled you at a slight distance. His body language was like that of a hunting predator: tense and ready to pounce at the first opportunity. And yet, unbelievably, he managed to pull together his tattered persona enough to laugh along with you.

"I know, I'm a heartbreaker," he casually boasted, flicking both sides of his collar in a show of false confidence, "but I only got so many of my good vibes to share around! There's people and places that need a fly guy like me to keep them _fresh_. Can't help it if there's not enough for you too, Read. You're not my taste. But maybe I'd change my mind if you toned down the _salt_."

"You want to attack me? Go ahead. Who knows, maybe today will be your lucky day."

The sound of teeth faintly grinding together clued you into just how close Fresh was to snapping. You were excited. Would he actually do it? Would he try to kill you? Oh man, you hoped so.

Sans was sweating heavily in your arms. The sheer thickness of it almost made you want to shove him away (it may be magical sweat but it was still gross, damnit). He kept himself pressed securely against your front while never letting his head turn away from the threat prowling only a few feet away. The longer the silence dragged on the more he pulled himself into the fluff of your jacket, trying to hide from the pacing entity that kept staring at him could still hear him whispering for you to stop taunting Fresh and just start running, but you didn't really care about anything he had to say. It was a stupid suggestion anyway, and besides, you were enjoying yourself too much to stop.

Fresh paused in his pacing, staring you down directly as he finally accepted that he was out of options. You felt the change in him as he slowly began to mimic the same dark giddiness you were feeling. It was happening. He was going to do it!

"Ha! You might be onto somthin' wild there, Read. Won't know if I don't try~" he grinned sharply as he gave in to the temptation your challenge.

"no, no, no, don't try! you don't need to do that-!"

"Then go ahead! Do it! YOLO, right?"

Fresh barked out a sharp laugh at your encouragement, glasses excitedly switching between [YO] [LO] and [SW] [AG]

"Hell yeah, brah! 4 20 Blaze. It. UP!"

Three giant skulls appeared as Fresh raised a dusty hand at you. Each of them had a vibrant purple goo leaking out of their eyes and snouts. They looked broken as they shuddered in the space above Fresh's head, but you knew they only looked that way because they were under the parasite's control.

As they bared their sharp teeth and began to charge energy in their open jaws, Sans started to yell and struggle in your arms.

"shit! shit! move! we need to _move_!" he screamed at you over the deafening humming of the blasters.

But you didn't move. Instead, you lifted the wriggling bundle of bones so that his feet couldn't touch the floor. Well, again, he _thought_ his feet weren't touching the floor, so his mind reasoned that he should be dangling helplessly. You'd already established that the anti-void didn't have a real floor and functioned purely on the expectations of the mind, but who could possibly be expected to remember that when they had three powerful magic blasters aimed at their face?

"Let's get this party _started_!" Fresh yelled as the blasters fired as one.

The soundwave alone was enough to make you wobble. An eye-searing array of colours cut through the clean white of the anti-void, filling the emptiness with absurdly powerful magic. One beam alone would be large enough to envelop your entire body. Somewhere under the noise Sans was still yelling desperately at you to either run or release him. You silently refused, staring down your incoming rainbow-coloured death with fire in your eyes.

Without warning the beams changed direction. They twisted and looped around until they were approaching you from both your sides as well as beneath your feet. Thanks to their new trajectory, you could see that you would be the only casualty of Fresh's attack. You made eye contact with the parasite from behind the flailing skeleton, frowning at his smug grin.

Of course he wouldn't risk destroying a new vessel, it was only _you_ that he needed out of the way. If you'd known his current mindslave could twist energy beams so well, you would have tried dodging at least a _little_. What a cheater.

Now the only question was if he could fry you before-

The space around you suddenly lurched, causing the energy beams to explode into showers of colourful sparks. You could easily guess what had blocked them.

The sheer vibrancy of the destroyed attack blinded you for a moment, but you kept your footing. As you hurriedly blinked your eyes clear again you saw Fresh leaping through the shattered particles of magic at top speed. He latched onto your jacket and came face to face with Sans, glasses removed sometime during the fireworks.

The skeleton trapped in your jacket let out an honest-to-god terror filled _scream_ as his vision was suddenly filled with nothing but the dust of a monster on the brink of death and whatever the hell Fresh kept hidden behind his sunglasses.

You twisted to try and wrench the parasite away- but before you could, blue strings quickly filled the area and did the job for you. Fresh spotted the incoming danger and quickly jumped back into the cloud cover of his dissipating magic attack. You, however, did not move at all.

The thin threads quickly wound their way over, around and even _through_ your body, uncaring of the discomfort they caused. As they pulled tight, you were wrenched away from the 'ground'. The strings had their own rules, you see, and that meant you no longer had any control over the solidity of the anti-void.

Though it wasn't pulled free of your body, you could feel the harsh bite of magic around the edges of your Soul as you were left hanging. It was painful... but you were used to it.

Still wrapped up tightly in your jacket, Sans whimpered. Being so close to you, he had ended up bound in the strings as well. You honestly couldn't tell if he was shuddering from pain or the fear of everything that had just transpired. Either one was understandable.

"W̢ḩat ̸do̢ ̧yo͝u͘ ̧t̷h̷i̸ńk̀ y̕o͟u͘'̧r̀e d̸oi̵ng ͘b̴ac̨k̢ ̢h͞e̴re͜, ̡v̷i͠ru͡s҉!̧?͡" a static-filled voice hissed angrily. You didn't need to turn your head to know who it was.

Error was here.

Red error signs flashed violently around his form as he wavered in and out of reality. The strings on his fingers cut cleanly through the white that constantly surrounded you. His red and yellow eyes were fixed solely on the intruder, completely ignoring you and the Classic trapped in your grip.

Below you, Fresh was dodging wave after wave of blue strings. One of them managed to catch his sleeve and instantly shredded it, leaving the powdering bones beneath bare for all to see. Everything was moving so fast that you could barely see anything more than a blur, but it was obvious Fresh wasn't going to win. Not only was Error just the slightest bit stronger than him, but his vessel was falling to pieces.

With a final glare at you from behind his glasses (when had he managed to put those back on?) there was a _snap_ and the sound of space warping, signalling Fresh's departure from the anti-void.

The homicidal skeleton floating beside you snarled, glancing at you briefly before similarly slipping into a different wavelength of the multiverse. You caught a glimpse of a murderous smile as he disappeared. He'd probably figured out the state that Fresh was in as well and was likely headed out to finish the parasite off. Not that he could ever destroy Fresh completely, but he would certainly enjoy chasing him down and... ah, haha, yeah... maybe it would be best to stop your train of thought right there.

Error made no sign that he saw or cared about the Classic that was rattling loudly against you, leaving you more uncomfortable than usual. From past experience you knew that you could be left suspended for a long, long time. Normally it wasn't so bad, but this time you had company.

Welp. You'd just have to deal. Nothing was going to ruin the fact that you _just beat Fresh_! Not even a wheezing, terrified skeleton strapped to your chest.

"th-that- you-?" Sans stuttered through his chattering teeth, "d-did you kn-know that would happen?"

"Ye-puh," you popped the P proudly, "I told you before; Error keeps 'sparing' me. Anyone who attacks me gets shredded."

"shit. you coulda- fuck. i forgot… i th-thought... you're fuckin' crazy, you know that!?"

You giggled at the accusation. He wasn't entirely wrong. Not once during the encounter had you given a second thought to the fact that you had almost been wiped from existence. Not only that, but you'd kinda wanted it to happen. If that made you crazy, then sure; you were crazy. But why should you care about it? Adrenaline was still pumping furiously through your veins, encouraging your heart to beat at a speed that you hadn't experienced in a long time. You honestly didn't care about 'what if's' right now. You felt great.

You felt _alive_.

"... there was really someone in there."

"Hmm?"

You glanced down curiously at Sans as he mumbled to himself. Unfortunately, the strings tied around the both of you had made your protective grip on the skeleton transform into a rather uncomfortable embrace from behind, so all you could really see was the top of his skull.

"th-that thing really did... he was dying in there. that guy was... h-he was inside... he was _dying_."

"Of course he was. Almost anything alive will die eventually."

You flinched your head back as Sans almost headbutted you in the chin. He was glaring at you with incredible force, but the awkward angle kind of killed the effect.

"how can you be so-! so fucking _casual_ about that!? there was someone _in there_! they were _suffering_!"

The sudden outburst was so unexpected that you immediately forgot about your celebrations. You'd expected whimpering and terror from the guy, not fury. He wasn't even angry over the fact that you had held him helpless in the face of potential death by lasers. You really hadn't pinned him for the type to be so emotionally sensitive about the lives of others.

As you stared down into the enraged eye sockets of the short skeleton, you realised something...

"I might've been wrong about you being a pure Classic. You're more like some weird Swap!Sans hybrid. Maybe with a bit of Fell."

"i'm not-! who the hell cares what fuckin' _label_ i have!?" Sans furiously sputtered as he yelled up at you, "i don't! i'm just _me_!"

Your only response was a nod and a simple "Okay."

Sans continued to fume and mutter under his breath at you as you silently observed him. He really was quite angry. No other Classic you had met had ever showed this much emotion. Of every subset they were generally the ones who seemed the most drained and were the fastest to give up. But more than any Sans type, you were mostly reminded of your own fit of rage before you'd stubbornly forced yourself to sleep. Interesting. And yet, it wasn't just anger that fueled his sudden change in demeanor...

Being so close, you could feel the way his bones were still shaking. It was possible that the strength of his outburst was fueled by his leftover fear from your encounter with Fresh.

"Hmm, think of it this way: whoever it was that Fresh has trapped in there, they'll be free soon. One way or another, they won't hurt anymore. It's better that way. "

There was a long stretch of silence. Sans had stopped swearing, suddenly becoming still in thought. Huh. Were your words were really that thought provoking? They weren't even that positive! Just facts that you'd learned over time.

It was only then that you realised that you'd been lying your cheek on the top of his skull. What? When had _that_ happened? Had it been like that from the beginning? No, wait, you'd dodged Sans' head right before he'd started ranting. Oh no. That meant you'd lay it down sometime _after_ that. Not that it meant anything! You'd just been exhausted after everything and needed to lay your head down somewhere...

... Right after saying something to counter Sans' worries.

 _Shit_ , you hadn't meant to be _comforting_! What was _wrong_ with you recently? This was the _second time_ -!

"... you really do believe that, don't you?"

It took everything in you to remain stoic as you lifted your head off of Sans. The way he'd said those words hadn't been negative or accusatory; they'd been more of a statement. He sounded calm, contemplative and just a little bit sad. It was a tone that implied he'd only just understood something about you.

It made you uncomfortable.

"thanks. for saving my life, i mean."

... _Really uncomfortable._

"I didn't save your life," you spoke plainly, willing your voice to not slip into a childish grumble, "You're still here: you're not saved."

"still, i guess there are... _worse_ things."

As Sans shuddered you were careful to not return the gesture. You agreed with him completely, of course, it was just that you were getting sick of him inferring stuff about you. The only way you could safely prevent yourself from providing any more opportunity for a connection was by no longer responding to him.

Annoyingly, a sharp pinch around your Soul was all it took to break your resolve.

"Ow! What the _hell_ do you think you're doing!?" you hissed down at Sans.

Despite being wrapped up tightly in both Error's strings and your arms, Sans was wriggling about to try and get free.

"c'mon, there's no time to _hang around_ ," he joked up at you, both of you flinching as another thread tugged just a little too tight, "we should get outta here before those two get back."

"So you do like puns..." you muttered half to yourself as you watched him unamused as he tried to find a weakness in his bonds.

"'course i like puns. didn'tcha here the one i _dropped_ the first time?"

You huffed as you plopped you cheek firmly back on top of Sans' head. There was no way you were going to support him in his attempt at escape; Error's strings were unbreakable. If he was smart he'd give up after a bit of struggling, and if not- well, you'd probably be spending a good long while trying to get the dust out of your coat.

Until then, a nap sounded like a good idea. It wasn't often to had something to lay your head on, even if a skull was significantly harder than a pillow.

"hey! rea- uh, h-human... person? damnit, get up! i need your help on this!"

You responded by purposefully leaning more of your weight over Sans' body, effectively stopping his movements. He sighed deeply and you internally laughed at his display of resignation.

It was going to be a while before Error got back.


	6. Error 88

Peaceful. Comfortable. Fulfilling.

These were all words that you hardly ever used to describe your naps, but it seemed that you had been lucky for once. Despite the fact that you were dangling in the air with dangerous magic biting into the edges of your inner being, you had never felt more rested.

It was almost a completely foreign feeling. You hadn't even dreamed. You just felt... At peace. Calm. Satiated- Something along those lines. It was pure bliss to be able to wake up slowly and softly without the usual burden of a headache, heavy eyes, stiff limbs or worse. You didn't even sense an ever present cloud of apathy clinging to your mind and ruining such a rare moment.

You rolled your head slightly as the feeling of a pleasant sleep slowly rolled off of you like a gentle fog carried away by a warm spring breeze. Normally you would gag at such a needlessly romantic description- especially since you couldn't accurately remember the feel of neither fog nor any type of breeze- but hey, you were feeling good enough to let it slide.

Something was under your face and you pressed your cheek against it more to try and figure out what it was without having to open your eyes. It was hard and vaguely comfortable, if only because it was more present than anything the anti-void could conjure for you. It took you a moment, but you soon remembered that you were resting your head on the new skeleton that you'd managed to keep out of Fresh's grip. Ha! That was another thing for you to feel great about! That stupid parasite was probably having the _worst_ time right now. And it was all thanks to you!

Twitching your fingers, you felt the fabric of Sans' jacket trapped beneath your fingertips. He seemed completely rigid in your arms. Maybe he was uncomfortable with your close proximity? Well, tough shit. _You_ were comfortable, and being locked into an unwanted hug with a skeleton wasn't the worst thing that could happen to you. Besides, he'd probably had hours to get used to being trapped with you while you slept. If he was going to be funny about it then that was his problem. There was no way you were going to turn into a blushing, stuttering mess just because of a little awkward contact with a (technically familiar) stranger.

As your eyes fluttered open you instantly whipped back into a bad mood again. It seemed that you'd been a bit too hasty to mentally tease Sans for his discomfort. As it turned out, there was a perfectly good reason for his stiffness.

Error had returned while you were sleeping.

Despite the fact that Error would never let blood or dust cling to him so there was never any evidence of his kills, you could tell when he'd failed to destroy something. Fresh had obviously slipped out of his grasp.

His fingers were twitching from unspent energy and he was watching you both with a cruel grin. The flashing red error signs that provided his namesake didn't just flicker around his body, but in the depths of his eye sockets as well. He needed something to release his frustrations on, something to channel the angry energy that he'd built up while pursuing the virus who'd managed to insult him by escaping. Obviously that was why he was floating in front of you so gleefully. You were already wrapped up in his strings like a couple of flies in a web, completely helpless in the face of whatever he was planning.

"A̕h̢, f͢in̶a͞l͏l̷y aw̛aḱe. ͜N͜ow҉ ẃe ca͢n starţ.̛"

Error smiled cruelly at you as you lifted your head off of Sans' skull. Had he been waiting? You honestly thought he didn't have the patience for that. And why hadn't Sans tried to wake you? Sure, you wouldn't have appreciated it, but it seemed like something he was likely to do, at least after what happened with Fresh.

The skeleton in your arms swore quietly and pressed himself harder against you, probably out of some misguided belief that you could shield him from Error the same way that you had shielded him from the parasite before. Unfortunately for him, you couldn't have done anything even if you tried. Unlike with Fresh, you had no counter to the glitchy monster. Error was just _stronger_ than you were. Not to mention you were just a human with no magic and no one to save you; so of course you could do nothing as Error waved his hand and sent blue strings to wrap around Sans' neck.

Now, not all skeleton monsters actually needed to breathe, depending on what rules their universe followed. Some of the subsets you had met simply didn't require oxygen and it was looking like the Sans in your arms was one of them. But Error was well practiced in the ways of needless torture. He probably already knew exactly what type of Sans he was dealing with and just how to make him suffer. Even if he couldn't strangle the guy, his neck was one of the thinnest areas of any skeleton (bar the spine). He was obviously aiming to snap it.

Sans shuddered and struggled in your arms, trying to pull away from the blue magic that was threatening to cut through and shatter him. You barely suppressed a grimace as you heard his bones shifting and popping from the pressure.

"shit. _fuck…_ " he hissed, voice unobstructed yet strained. His neck was pulled taut by the threads and you found yourself staring at his upside down face, eyes wide and sweat beading on his skull as his bones strained and cracked. You looked away despite the image being burned into your mind already. It would probably stick around in your nightmares for a while, but at least if you turned your head away you might end up avoid getting his dust up your nose.

"s-stop. fuck- _Fuck you!_ "

Error simply laughed at the skeleton's anger, amused with the feedback he was getting. However you could also feel his unsettling red gaze shift to you occasionally. It clicked that maybe that was the reason neither of them woke you. Error had probably popped in and decided that he would only kill Sans while you were awake; that way he'd be able to revel in the suffering of two people instead of just one.

Killing someone near you while you were asleep had only completely horrified you the first few times. Killing someone directly in front of you had been the same before emotional numbness sunk in. Killing someone in your arms? Well, you had to admit that was a new one, even if you didn't really have the emotional attachment that a hug implied. Still, it was no wonder Sans hadn't tried to wake you. You could imagine Error suddenly popping in and whispering the rules of his game just to watch him sweat. Poor guy had probably been trying to buy himself more time.

Unlike Sans, you weren't up for being entertainment. Even if you couldn't fight him you still knew the way that Error worked. There was no way that you were going to react for him. You didn't have the willpower for it anyway. Heck, you'd always known that the new skeleton was going to die, the only question was when. You didn't have it in you to be sad for Sans. Honestly, despite the pain and terror he must've been in, there were worse ways for a monster to go than having their neck snapped.

Sans seemed to have given up on retaliation as well as he stared up at your blank face and realised you weren't going to help him. A brief thought crossed your mind that you should tell him your thought process; that giving less of a reaction would probably cause Error to become bored. Though it could also make him angrier... So there was no point in saying anything. Instead you kept your head turned so you could stare unseeing into the vast whiteness. You didn't even see the mix of desperation and disappointment that crossed Sans' face before he _really_ started to struggle.

"Are you trying to make this _worse_?" you harshly whispered into the side of Sans' skull, not actually meaning your anger. Why didn't he just give up earlier and turn to dust peacefully like the rest? Why did Fresh have to evade Error? Why were you so weak and useless, unable to save yourself or anyone else? The only response you got was a string of expletives and curses, all aimed at Error with no reply to you.

The strings tying you both together tightened uncomfortably as Sans wriggled in their grip. The sharp threads dug into your flesh and Soul, making you grind your teeth together to stop yourself from yelling in pain. Reflexively you hugged Sans tighter, needing to grip onto something to distract yourself from the agony. His body was pulled tight, finally at the breaking point Error had been cruelly building him up to, where any more pressure would easily separate his head from his shoulders.

...

At least he wouldn't feel pain when he was dead.

Suddenly your arms were empty, though not for the reason you'd thought they would be. There was no cloud of dust bursting up into your eyes or maniacal laughter from your captor. No, Error was floating before you, arms flung out to the sides and glaring at you with a displeased look. Looking to the left you saw Sans still tangled up in Error's magic, gasping for air he didn't necessarily need. Despite the both of you being so tangled before, the black skeleton had enough skill and precision to easily separate you from each other with a single flick of his arms.

"You'͡r͡e̕ re͢aĺl͢y ́be̵ginn̶i҉ng to annoy me,̡ ̛you fi̵l̷t͞hy _g̨litc͟h̕_ " Error growled darkly and it took you a moment to realise his attention was entirely on you and not Sans.

You were confused. What had you done to get _that_ reaction? You hadn't done anything the whole time, just hung there in limp acceptance. Turns out, that was the entire problem.

"D̀o yo̕ú tḩi͟n̷k ̧ýou can͘ ̛j́u̸st ig͟ńo̢re̴ ͢ḿe͟?" he snarled, "Y̶o͠u̶'r͞e _u҉sele̕ss_."

Of _freaking_ course. You'd thought that murdering Sans would be enough for the bastard; not because you didn't want to be next (you probably would have been anyway) but because you honestly didn't have the energy to get upset about such things anymore. But your captor didn't care if you didn't have the will to react to his madness. Error had obviously waited specifically to see your reaction, probably buzzing with excitement at the thought of all the despair you would be experiencing as he murdered his newest trophy so uncomfortably close to you. Too bad for him that you'd suffered so much at his hands already. It wasn't your fault if he'd forgotten just how emotionally drained you were when it came to his 'games'. He had unknowingly ruined his own fun with his past actions, and that realisation made you smile bitterly.

Seeing your resignation, Error became enraged. You were supposed to _suffer_ , not _smirk_. He'd have to fix that.

Throwing his left hand down, you were suddenly pulled by the blue strings to slam into a wall conjured by the anti-void. Pain exploded along your right side as you made contact with the invisible surface Error had manifested. Somewhere above you there was a distressed shout, but your head was spinning too much to focus on it.

Again and again you were whipped around and slammed into various surfaces. Error even went through the effort of changing the textures so that the walls felt like concrete one second and sandpaper the next. He also varied the size of the walls, making sure that you came into contact with them in ways that would _really_ hurt; like having only your face smack into a surface while your body continued unobstructed, or making sure that one of your legs snapped against an invisible corner. It felt like the pain would go on forever and you found yourself angrily wishing that you would just pass out already.

Eventually he dropped you, his strings easing up on their grip but not releasing you. Everything hurt. Your face was bleeding everywhere, bruises were forming all over your body and a good deal of your bones were probably broken beneath your beaten skin. None of it was enough to kill you and you whined out a breath in frustration. Of all the pain you had received in the past, this was definitely up there with the worst of it. And you were still conscious too. Damnit.

"N͜e͡x͏t ̶timè _͡pa̛y ̕at̸tent̢io̵n̵_.̛"

Error laughed manically as he disappeared, all of his murderous impulses seemingly satiated for the moment.

You hoped it would be a long time before he decided to come back again.

Something pressed against your shoulder and you hissed in agony. God, everything hurt. Just... so much. You couldn't remember the last time you were left in such bad shape. What happened to the peace you had experienced when you'd woken up? Why couldn't you go back to that? It had been so nice that even just the thought of it made you feel a little better. Maybe you would be lucky enough to experience that again one day...

The something at your shoulder shifted, trying to turn you onto your back without hurting you too much. That was impossible, of course, and you twitched pathetically as pain shot through your useless and broken limbs.

"hey, hey, shh. sorry. try to- just let me see..."

You groaned in irritation as you recognized the voice. Sans was at your side, trying to turn you over and assess your wounds. How dare he. You hadn't tried to help him, so why should he bother to help you?

"Go away." You spat blood out into the anti-void. Your eyes barely followed the red droplets as they floated away as if in space. They wouldn't land on a surface unless someone willed one in their path, but honestly who cared about a few drops of blood?

"bud, you need help. just forget the heartless loner act for a bit."

With a bit more pressure and a lot of swearing on your part, Sans finally managed to flip you over onto your back. Breathing immediately became harder as the weight of your own body settled in and the blood from your broken nose and busted lip started to slide thickly down your throat. You started to cough heavily as the copper-tasting liquid spread its way down your airpipes, making you choke.

"ah, crap. t-turn your head. i'll…"

"I _got_ it."

With a thought you dispelled the surface that Error had placed you on, leaving your body to float weightlessly in the anti-void in front of Sans' kneeling form. With the uncomfortable weight of gravity no longer pressing you down, you could breathe easier. Some of the blood on your face lifted away in various directions, forming a little veil of red drops which levitated around your head like little rubies.

Through the slits of your blurry black eyes you could see Sans' awed expression. He probably never would have thought to use the anti-void's malleable rules in such a strange way, but you'd had time to experiment. Entranced, he reached out and grazed the end of a finger against a floating droplet, watching as part of the sticky liquid attached onto the surface of his bones as the rest detached itself and floated away, splitting into two smaller spinning drops.

"You're still alive…?" you croaked past the blood dripping down your throat. Despite having been 'strangled' for so long, Sans seemed relatively unharmed. Maybe it was another perk of his subset. Some monster variations didn't show signs of physical injury, instead only having their Soul affected. They still felt pain and took damage, but you couldn't help but feel extremely jealous. Not needing air _and_ not having to suffer long lasting signs of injury? This guy had drawn a damn good hand when it came to the rules of his existence.

"h-huh? oh. yeah."

The skeleton shook himself out of his daze as he assessed your injuries. He looked absolutely horrified at the damage done to you, wincing in sympathy for your wounds. It was kind of weird in your eyes. He'd almost died himself and you certainly weren't going to cry about it. You weren't even crying over your own injuries! The only tears on your face were caused by being flung about at such high speeds. The G forces created by being whipped around by the crazed monster were pretty incredible sometimes.

"i uh... i don't really know how to heal humans," Sans finally mumbled, scratching at his skull and using his sleeve to wipe away the sweat that had gathered there, "can't even heal that much at all, if i'm bein' honest with ya."

You huffed in response. You'd already suspected as much. Not many of your visitors could heal anyway, especially not the ones who carried the title of 'doctor'. Almost all of the Sans' you'd met were science oriented in some way, and generally not the biology kind of science so you were kind of screwed. Still, you'd live (unfortunately); you'd just have to deal with the pain in the meantime.

Suddenly there was something being pressed against your mouth and you scrunched your nose at the touch, instantly regretting it as a new wave of pain shot through your broken face.

"careful," Sans whispered, hand outstretched and pushing something small towards your face, "didn't mean to do that. just eat this. it'll make ya feel better."

Squinting through your swollen eyelids, you recognized that he was holding out some kind of monster food; likely a candy. You instantly took the offering, knowing that some monster foods were strong enough to heal human wounds. Even if it wasn't the strongest soulfood that the multiverse had to offer, it could still bring you some comfort and- Bleh, _gross!_ Had he been keeping that thing in his pocket the whole time? You could taste lint past all the copper coating your mouth and you could swear there was a string of fur stuck in your teeth.

Your disgusted face must have been pretty amusing because Sans immediately started to chuckle. If it wasn't for the fact that the candy was thankfully very effective you would have swatted at him out of irritation.

As the pain in your limbs and a good deal of your swelling died down you decided to obey whatever fickle laws of gravity the anti-void could provide you. Most of your cuts faded, though the blood and a few bruises remained. Mostly you were grateful that your bones were break-free. Dealing with snapped and broken limbs was one of your least favourite past-times, so-much-so that you felt you had to voice your gratitude.

"Thanks."

There. Done.

"you're welcome." Sans winked at you, grinning as though you'd revealed your entire heart to him instead of speaking a single word.

You returned his smile with an unamused look before standing and stretching. Small pains still ran through your body, but it wasn't so bad that you couldn't sleep it off like always. Turning on your heel, you began to walk away.

"h-hey! where are you going?" the skeleton called after you, hurrying to his feet.

"Off to take a nap," you replied with a yawn.

"what, again!?" Sans gaped in disbelief, "after all _that_? look, not ta be a hypocrite, but don'tcha think you're sleepin' a bit too much?"

"I'm going to sleep _because_ of everything that just happened," you huffed back at him, still walking despite the fact that you were being followed, "Why don't you, I dunno, go _die_ somewhere before someone else tries to kill you again?"

A sharp pull at your coat stopped you in your tracks. The suddenness of the action caused you to spin unexpectedly on your foot, making you stumble and end up facing a very angry looking Sans.

"You're a real asshole sometimes, you know that?" he growled up at you, eye sockets dark. It was a trick you'd seen a hundred times before.

"Don't speak as if you know me," you hissed back at him, inwardly grumbling at the cliche-ness of your own line, "You probably didn't even know the me from your own universe!"

"Listen, _pal_ ," Sans continued to pull on your coat, dragging you closer to his level, "I know you've been through some hard shit here but I'm not falling for your emotionally-weathered victim schtick. You might mean it when that Error prick is around, but I can see your _Soul_. And Souls don't lie."

You snarled and ripped your coat out of the skeleton's hand. How _dare_ he just make these accusations! You _were_ emotionally worn down, mostly. All you wanted was to be left alone! Sure, pissing off Fresh had been great at first, but look what it got you in the end! An aching body, a face caked in blood and strings constricting around your Soul, silently promising that you captor would be back for more later. Being awake just _wasn't worth it_. And hanging around other prisoners was even more so.

As you stomped away angrily, you felt a pull on your Soul. Ah damnit. Was Error back already? That didn't take long.

However, as you were lifted into the air you realised that the blue strings were still slack. Error wasn't doing anything. In front of you shone a little heart-like Soul, covered in strings and dyed a deep blue by the magic that was holding you in the air. You growled down at the culprit, furious but still exhausted from the beating you'd taken earlier.

Below you, Sans stood with his left arm raised and a surprisingly guilty look on his face. You'd honestly thought he'd look a little more smug, lauding his magical monster powers over you as he was. At the very least he should be happy to discover that even if his blasters (that you just _knew_ he had after the way he'd gestured at Fresh) didn't work in the anti-void, at least his more basic magic did.

Slowly, he set you down on an invisible angled surface. Even though you had your arms angrily crossed and were glaring daggers at the skeleton, you still registered that the area he'd created from the anti-void was soft like a reclining chair. You guessed that he'd probably been forced to watch you get thrown around by Error and picked up on that trick as he watched your multiple injuries pile up.

Begrudgingly, you had to admit he was a pretty observant guy. _Again_.

"listen," he began as he sat down beside you with a sigh, "i know ya don't wanna get along with me. you've got your reasons. but i... i really do think i've got a plan to get outta here."

You watched as your Soul, something that you so very rarely got to see for yourself, was gently returned back into your body, strings and all.

"and… i think that you should come with me. not just to help, but to escape. if this works, we could be safe and find a way to keep away that error creep from ever doin' this shit again," Sans continued, his smile seeming so uncomfortably sincere to you that you could barely make eye contact, "but ya have ta trust me and not just give up an' go back to sleep again, okay?"

There was a long stretch of silence as you mulled over the skeleton's words. Did he really believe that his plan would work that much? Not a lot of people who came through had good plans when it came to escaping, and even less of them included you. Most had tried to fight Error while a spare few (mostly the soft-hearted Swaps and Bitties with the occasional kind-hearted or manipulative human) had tried to befriend him. The results were obvious: all of them had been met with violent failure. The rest either killed themselves, were murdered pre-maturely or simply abducted by Fresh. What did this Sans think he could do that so many others couldn't?

And, more importantly, should you take the risk and trust him?

... Screw it. You were too tired to move anyway.

"Well, I guess I could at least listen and tell you if I've heard your ideas before."

"trust me, you won't regret it."

You sighed irritably as Sans beamed at you. Yeah, right, sure, you wouldn't regret it. How could he possibly say something like that without hesitation? You had only agreed to listen to him, nothing else.

You settled your sore body deeper into the cushioned surface Sans had seated you on and kept your arms crossed as you listened to the monster's plan.

This wasn't going to end well.


	7. void unsafe(int restore)

_Before Error suddenly decided to destroy it, Sans had lived in a place called the Underground. The Underground was located under a mountain named Mt Ebott, and it was where all of monsterkind had been sealed after a long war between monsters and humans..._

"so, uh, just wonderin'... have you heard this story before?"

"A few times in a few different flavours."

"right. how much are we talkin' exactly? i wanna know how much of this i can skip."

"Okay, um... Humans were scared of monsters because they could use magic good and take their Souls. Blah, blah, blah, people died and monsters were sealed away wherever. There's a barrier of some sort and it needs seven human-ish Souls to break it, but one monster and one human can pass through it or something."

"... y'know what? close enough. i'm gonna skip the history lesson. the important part is this-"

 _During his life underground, Sans did a bit of work as a scientist. A good deal of his job focussed on researching the barrier and providing energy to monsters so that they could live in comfort while they were trapped. One of the major things he had a hand in was analysing and upkeeping the Core; a machine which powered the Underground with both monster magic and void energy._

 _The void which powered the Core was an ever present plane of existence which filled every space in the known universe. It weaved its way through reality, existing both as a parallel and a glue for the world of matter. By tapping into the void they could pull out energy for their species to survive on, despite the fact that they'd never been able to detect any protons or other physical energies within in it._

 _Eventually, thanks to some books detailing astronomy and the nature of space falling into the Underground, they theorized that the void was in fact connected to every black hole in the known universe. There were many similarities between the two forces, mostly concerning time, gravity and energy. Nothing could escape the pull of a black hole, not even light, but the laws of the universe dictated that energy could neither be created nor destroyed._

 _So the question was this: Where did all that energy go once a black hole absorbed it? According to the human's books and their own research on the matter, all black holes reached a singularity where matter would become so compressed that it seemed to vanish entirely. No human measurement existed to keep track of anything that passed the singularity within a black hole. As far as they could tell, once that point was passed the laws of physics could potentially no longer exist, meaning that whatever entered might also become nonexistent._

 _The humans were half right._

 _The real answer was that once the absorbed energy reached that singularity it was immediately transported back to the starting point of the universe. According to the theories of Sans' work, at the very core of reality lay the point of origin. Essentially it was the place where all matter had originated from: the location of the big bang, or, as the monster's called it, the Source._

 _It was a point of continuous expansion and movement, spreading out the matter of the universe at a constant rate. As the Source expanded, black holes created by the intense gravity of collapsing stars would re-absorb energy and matter around them. Through the hilariously named spaghettification process, anything that fell into them would be broken down into its most basic components and transported instantly back to the Source._

 _Essentially it was like a doorway; the black holes acted as the entrance, the void was the metaphorical door frame that matter took a shortcut through, and the Source was the exit point where everything entered back into reality again. This way energy was never lost nor wasted, meaning that the laws of conservation were preserved. Matter was simply repurposed whenever a star reached the end of it's lifecycle and collapsed into a gateway, starting the process anew when it was reformed into something entirely different at the Source._

 _Through a stroke of genius by the Royal Scientist at the time, monsterkind had mastered the art of redirecting the flow of energy between black holes and the Source by pulling it from the void, giving them access to a phenomenal amount of power. It was a trivial amount of energy in comparison to what the universe actually held, but to the beings trapped under a certain mountain it was everything they needed. Not only could they provide themselves with electricity and resources, but with practice they could master so much more!_

 _By utilising the void properly, one could send matter to any point in the known universe regardless of distance, similar to a wormhole only with less potential distortion. Teleportation of both people and objects became a very real possibility (provided that one could counter the astounding gravity usually encountered in black holes). Storing items was also possible, provided that enough magic was present to tether items in the void so that they wouldn't be dragged back to the Source._

 _It was even possible that monsters could one day bypass the barrier erected by humanity, though they would need considerably more space and safety was a huge concern. The Core generated a lot of energy and needed to be cooled constantly. Expanding their capacity for energy could lead to a catastrophic explosion or open a black hole right in the middle of the Underground. If they were to transport all of monsterkind through the void they would need something to generate blue magic on a colossal scale, as well as double or even triple their coolant procedures and expand-_

"wh- hey! don't just nod off while i'm explain!"

"Ow! Keep your boney fingers away from me! I'm listening!"

"oh, you are, huh? so i'm guessin' leanin' and drooling like that is just a thing that humans do."

"Look, is this actually important to your point? Because I seriously have no idea what the hell you're saying."

"what? yeah it- it _does_ matter! i have a point here. really. just wait for it, kay? it'll be worth it."

 _Anyway, that line of research kind of… died out. For reasons._

 _The point was that while they were studying it, the void was theorized to be much like the black holes that lead into it, except that when it came to the concept of time they were almost completely opposite to each other. If someone were to throw a clock into a black hole (barring the fact that the sheer gravity of the thing would instantly crush the little machine) it would eventually reach a depth where it no longer ticked because time itself ceased to exist. Time did not pass within a black hole. It was a dead zone where the only return was 0._

 _Once that clock hit the void, however… well that was where things got interesting._

 _The void beyond a black hole contained a different flow of time from both reality AND black holes. When it came to the void, the return was always -1. This wasn't an error or an indication that time went backwards in there. No, it meant that all of time was happening, well, all the time. It was a plane of existence where the past, present and future existed all at once. That poor little clock from the previous example would probably flip out and break if it wasn't broken enough already._

 _By studying the void, monster scientists became aware of fluctuations within the fabric of time. Even after the Royal Scientist, uh, got a replacement, they still continued to monitor for any jumps or resets located around their perceived present. Sans specifically kept a close eye on it. For personal reasons._

 _And it was in that small detail where your plan of escape began to take shape._

"Oh my god. Are you really only just getting to the plan _now_? This is the longest explanation of anything I've ever heard!"

"look, i shut up when you told me to during your story, so now you can be quiet and listen to mine!"

"Yeah, sure you were quiet- _barely_."

 _The important thing about the void and all of it's time shenanigans was that they were able to pick up fluctuations when timelines suddenly started shifting. The readings from the void showed evidence of resets in time, each branching from an unshifting point known as a Save. Eventually, Sans managed to pinpoint the anomaly causing the shifts: a tiny child by the name of Frisk._

 _Frisk was a human kid who'd fallen into the Underground. The king was supposed to use their Soul to break the barrier, but as long as they had access to Saves and Resets there was no way that child was going to die. Sure, Frisk was a good kid, but that didn't stop time from resetting on multiple occasions. Sans didn't even know why they did it half the time, considering a lot of the skips left gaping holes in his memory and a sickening sense of deja vu no matter what he did. Personally he blamed the Core. The reach of the giant machine's waves could be felt through all of the Underground, but only the most powerful monsters and those involved directly in the experiments could sense the time shifts as he did._

 _Besides, Frisk wasn't the only one to have held the ability to Save. There was a flower monster before them who had been the sole ruler over time, and a good deal of jumps were probably his fault. Fortunately the ability to Save seemed to fall to upon only the most Determined Soul in the Underground. And Frisk had a hell of a lot of Determination._

"so... do ya see where I'm going with this yet?"

"Nope."

"well you'd better hold onto your shorts 'cause this is where it all comes together."

 _When Error ripped apart his universe, Sans had watched him snatch the kid's Soul. It was a little red heart, just like the ones you had described to him in Error's little space for his private collection of anomalies. If Sans could find that space, he could find Frisk's Soul; the Soul of a time traveler. With their power of Determination and the ability to Save and Reset, it could be possible to restore Sans' universe back to the way it was before Error shredded it to pieces._

 _All he had to do was bring it to the original Source location of his 'verse and_ BAM! _\- It'd be like nothing ever happened. The Determination in the kid's Soul would come back into contact with their Saves, triggering an instant Reset, or better, a Continue! With the Source restored, the flow between void and reality would be reinstated and the universe would jump right back to where it left off, expanding and growing so that everything within could live. All matter would be recreated in an instant and everyone would be alive again!_

You watched as Sans wriggled his fingers in the air as he concluded his grand explanation. He seemed pretty proud of himself for thinking up the idea.

Better ruin that for him.

"Yeah, I really don't think you needed to tell me half of that stuff. It was really long-winded and confusing. Not to mention I kinda think that you just wanted to vent some of your science babble on someone."

You wished you could say that you 'wiped the smile off of his face', but considering he was a Sans that was nigh impossible. Either way he still huffed and shot you a disapproving glare. That was a reward enough.

"what i'm saying is that i can literally jump start an _entire universe_ if you just help me get Frisk's Soul back!" he huffed back at you, unamused at how his previous in-depth explanation was left completely unappreciated.

Leaning further back into the surface you were laying on, you merely continued to try and poke holes in his plan, "And just how are you planning to stop Error from up and destroying everything again?"

"easy," he smirked, "while i was doing some personal work on the void, i learned a few things about doorways through reality. basically, stuff's commin' in and outta the void all the time through the black holes and the source; but those paths can be altered, like with the core. now, the royal scientist was the one who figured out how ta open paths to the void and let tons of energy come out, but i never got the hang of it on that kinda scale. i can only do small shortcuts on a personal level with my blasters and things already physically close to me."

You waved your hand at him to speed up his explanation. God, you had no idea the guy could talk so much! Your head was spinning from all the new information! Luckily, irritating him was a good way to get him back on track.

"yeah, yeah, i get it! i'm gettin' to the point! i'm saying that even if i didn't learn shit about openin' doors on a large scale, i sure did find out a lot about what keeps 'em closed. what i'm plannin' to do is pretty much set a door between my world and this anti-void place so i can slam it in that static-y prick's face! then i'm gonna bolt that shit shut several times over. metaphorically, of course."

You hummed at the suggestion. It was an amusing analogy, one that brought to mind the image of Error screaming and kicking at a steel door, only to end up with a stubbed toe. God, what you wouldn't give to see that.

"And what about me?" you asked, hesitant to even give the impression that you might be interested in the skeleton's plan, "Where do I end up in all of this?"

"well," Sans tapped the side of his face, deep in thought, "i guess if you could remember which Soul is the Frisk of your world, you could do the same. But, uh, i'll be honest, that seems like kind of a stretch."

You nodded along as he thought. He was right on the money with that one. Hell, you weren't even sure if you'd met the equivalent of this 'Frisk' in your world. Even if you had a perfect memory, how were you supposed to know what your Frisk's Soul looked like if you never knew them? You sometimes even forgot what your own Soul was like!

There wasn't even a guarantee that your version of the anomaly was like the kid that Sans had described. What if they weren't all that merciful? What if they locked you in a time loop forever? Sure, you probably wouldn't even notice it, but would that really be any better than being stuck with Error? You'd be trapped at the mercy of another person yet again...

The skeleton before you seemed to follow your thinking and shrugged, "guess you'll just have to come live in my world. less risk and all. you said you don't remember what yours was like anyway, and it'll be hard to readjust after being stuck in this anti-void place. for both of us."

You almost balked at the suggestion, though Sans didn't seem the slightest bit worried about it. Did he expect you to be his therapy buddy? You were pretty confused at the offer, considering he'd called you an asshole only a few minutes ago.

Suddenly feeling awkward, you tried to grasp at any other reasons that the skeleton's plan was doomed to failure.

"The, uh, the source of your world. How are you planning to find that? This place is endless and your universe was literally disintegrated. You can't locate something that doesn't exist!"

Sans only continued to smile at you, a knowing glint in his eye.

"dun worry 'bout that. unlike all the matter of the universe, the void doesn't have anything. it's literally the epitome of empty space, and you can't destroy that. remember how you told me about your own universe falling away? the last thing to go was the void, and even then it just kinda melted into the anti-void. that's 'cause even if there's no matter to bind it, it still exists in some form after everything's destroyed. it's an empty slot in the multiverse, waiting to be filled again."

"What? How do you know-?"

"i said that the void could store stuff, right? well i have these blasters, like the ones that- _thing_ \- was controlling. they're tied into my magic so i could pull 'em out anywhere with almost no effort. thing is, when my world went kaput and the void melted, they all got stuck in there. i couldn't call 'em out to blast the guy who destroyed everythin' i ever knew and i couldn't use them to save myself from that creepy parasite; but i _can_ sense where they are with my magic. thanks to them being in what's left of my void i can always find my way back there, even if it means i'm a bit lacking attack wise."

You blinked at the explanation. Wow. This shit was complicated. He had all of this set up in his head? And seemingly from the moment you mentioned Error's creepy Soul space too. It wasn't a lot of time to come up with a plan so… intricate. And yet, from what you could tell, he had all of his bases covered. It was kind of scary. You almost…

You almost wanted to believe that it might work.

As you floundered for more reasons his plan was doomed, Sans sighed deeply.

"look," he began as he looked you dead in the eye, "i know you don't wanna go through with this plan with me. it's risky. but you gotta admit that you're mostly arguing with me for argument's sake." You were about to bite back a reply when he continued, "could you at least keep your word and tell me if you've heard a plan like this before?"

Gritting your teeth you looked away.

"… I haven't." you admitted quietly. You couldn't lie, you'd never heard anything so completely baffling before. The scope of it alone seemed tremendous. Resetting an entire universe was no small deal, no matter how easy Sans made it sound.

"ha! see? told ya i'd deliver." You huffed as you heard more than saw the smug skeleton man wink. He had been right about that. He'd been right about a lot of things. Why were you even hesitating to agree with his plan? What did you even have to lose? Your life? Pssh.

Maybe… Maybe it was worth a shot. If you passed up this opportunity now, would you ever have another chance? If you simply lay down in the anti-void again and waited for the day you were finally murdered, wouldn't you regret it?

...

Before you could get around the bitter lump in your throat to voice your change of heart, Sans was changing his tactics again.

"c'mon, we can get out of this place right now. i'll even forget about all the attitude you threw my way. from now on it's all null and _void_."

"Oooh my god," you groaned as he snickered, "Oooh my goood, you didn't just say that to me. You didn't just make a pun right now. Now I _have_ to say no. Just to spite you."

"okay, okay, i take it back" he laughed, "it's _anti-void_ now."

"I'm going to _lose it with you!_ "

You covered your face with your hands as you growled, one of your whines coming off suspiciously like a cross between a laugh and a sob. Oh man, this was going to end badly. This was going to end so, so badly!

"aw, buddy, i thought you liked puns?"

"Stop. Just… just stop."

You sighed, wiping your tired face with your hands. You were about to do something stupid.

"I, uh… I think I know where the place is. The one with- with the Soul you're looking for. Kind of. Maybe."

Sans' smile was way too genuine for you to even look at properly. The way that his eyes crinkled up at the corners and his posture remained relaxed showed that he had absolutely no intention of rubbing his victory in your face. It wasn't something you were used to.

"it's a start."

* * *

.

.

.

This was supposed to be my side project while I worked on Temperance but I've still got a cold and now here I am ranting about theoretical physics.

If any of this is unclear please ask lots of questions.


	8. Set run directory to C:Multiverse

It was amazing how, up until just a few moments ago, you had not realised just how much the new Sans could talk.

You still barely understood any of the things he'd said to you while explaining his 'Grand Plan'. It probably had something to do with time. Maybe gravity. Hadn't he mentioned something about singularities at some point? Was that important? Or was it the gushings of someone who was obviously so into their own ramblings that they had taken the Irrelevant Train to Nonsense Town? You were honestly beginning to forget even as he reiterated each point for you.

"- so since the source has to restart there's gonna be a lot of pressure from the rush of matter circulating. basically, when we get there black holes are gonna-"

"Okay, stop. Just- just shut up. I still have no idea what you've been saying to me for… for however long you've been rambling for," you sighed, carefully picking at the limp blue strings around you "I've already said I'll help with your plan, so why keep trying to hammer this stuff in?"

"'cause it could help if you understand what you're doin'! when we get to my world's source you'll have to know this stuff so you don't get torn to pieces by my universe's reformed gravity!" Sans huffed, quickly becoming exasperated with your reluctance to absorb the complex physics he kept trying to lecture into your poor head.

"Look, I only care about what I have to do _here_ , okay? I just have to get us to the Soul room. Then maybe once we're there we can try escaping or get caught and murdered by Error. Either way works to get us out of here."

"jeez, pal, you really know what to say to depress a guy."

Rolling your eyes you focussed back on the strings left by Error. You had decided to put yourself in a vulnerable position and try to actually pull off Sans crazy plan; not because you truly believed in it, but because you'd reasoned that you honestly had nothing to lose.

A large part of you still wanted to simply die, so if you failed at any point it could still work in your favour. Being killed by Error, being crushed by immense gravity, or simply finding an area beyond the anti- void where your last wisps of Determination couldn't prevent you from killing yourself… Perhaps you could find freedom through failure. After all, despite the thought he'd put into it, the probability of Sans' plan _actually_ succeeding without a hitch seemed practically nonexistent to you.

"Follow me."

You made sure to look Sans dead in the eye as you began to fall slowly upwards. The surprise and curiosity filled look on his face amused you as you followed one of the strings up and away into the unending white. Twisting yourself around smoothly, you crossed your legs and pretended to sit, staring upside down at the bewildered skeleton as you floated away, waiting for him to take the hint.

for a moment, likely from the sudden realisation that up and down technically didn't exist once he After a taking a moment to snap himself back into focus, Sans managed to direct his thoughts into the anti-void well enough to follow you. A small snicker managed to escape you as he fell too fast left the anti-void's 'ground'. He glared back at you slightly, managing to even himself out and keep his balance as you fell 'up' through the endless nothing.

"so you figured out where you're goin'?" he asked as he caught up with you.

"Sure."

Your noncommittal answer made Sans frown, but you merely shrugged in response. It hadn't been an understatement when you'd said that you _maybe_ , _probably_ knew where to find Error's trophy room. You'd only seen the place a limited number of times, and none of them recent, so you were almost clueless on how to find the damn place. All you had to go on was that it existed somewhere within the anti-void and that it was rife with Error's strings.

"Every time I've seen the place was because I was dragged there," you explained as you singled out and followed one of the many blue strings that stretched out into the distance, "No matter where I was Error always used his strings to pull me 'up', so maybe following the highest string will work. Besides, these things are probably all anchored together at some point… or something."

"you don't sound very confident about that," Sans observed.

"I'm really not. Hell, Error could sense us moving around right now and just decide to shred our Souls before we can actually do anything."

You watched from the corner of your eye as Sans silently lifted a hand up to his chest. While it was a stroke of luck that the blue strings had been left behind so you could use them to try and track down the Soul room, they were still a dark reminder from Error that he could return to torture the two of you at any time. The damned things were impossible to remove too, winding unobstructed through bone, skin, and matter to tie themselves firmly to your entire beings. One strong tug and their wire thin lengths could easily slice through both body and Soul.

Gulping down his nerves, Sans put on a brave face as he loosely grabbed onto the line you were following.

"heh, well, let's just hope that guy's not just _stringing_ us alo- _nnnNg!?_ "

"Wh- Woah, _what_!?"

You stared in shock as Sans collided with... _something_. He struggled as he floated, half of his body seeming to disappear into nothing.

"wh _hhhHH-_ at the hell- _ell_?" he swore, voice distorted by whatever was eating away his torso, " _hhHhh_ hel- _elp_ -p! wh _AAAa-_ at is this _sssSstt_ -stuff!?"

"I don't know! What did you _do_!?" you yelped back as Sans flailed wildly, his eyes open wide in terror. For as long as you'd been in the anti-void you had never once encountered… whatever it was that was attacking the monster.

"i _jjj_ -just foll- _ollollOllo_ -w- _eeeEd_ the li- _iiIIii_ -ne- _KkkKrrrtzzzt-eeeeeeEEEEEEEEE_!"

A loud whine erupted from the area around the skeleton as his body began to disappear even faster. You had to cover your ears as the continuous head-splitting tone threatened to deafen you. Staring in horror you watched as more and more of the Sans' body disappeared from sight. From where you floated in shock it almost seemed as though he was sinking sideways into invisible quicksand.

" _EEEeeeEeeaaaAAAAAAAA- HHhhEeelLLP!_ "

Snapping yourself out of your terrified and morbid observations, you reached out unthinkingly and grabbed hold of a bony hand. Sans grabbed back at you desperately, trying to pull himself towards you and out of whatever was consuming him. You tugged as hard as you could, but all you managed to do was make the squealing tone vary in pitch as Sans continued to sink into oblivion. With no true surfaces in the anti-void you had practically no leverage to pull the skeleton free - not even manipulating your own gravity and utilizing your full weight could remove him from the strange space he was wedged in.

Panicked and quickly realising that there was nothing you could actually do to save him, you attempted to let go of Sans and return to protecting your ears. However, when you tried to retrieve your right arm, you found that your wrist was trapped in the desperate grip of a terrified skeleton.

"S-Sans let go! _Fucking_ -! Let go you _idiot_!" You squirmed in panic as Sans was consumed by the Nothing, eyes squeezed shut as his head disappeared along with the rest of his body and the screaming tone preventing him from hearing your pleading.

Right as the last of his body seemed to disintegrate away, you began to feel a prickling sensation on your hand. Sans' arm was still in the process of disappearing, but whatever it was that had eaten away at him was slowly crawling over onto _your_ body too. As your hand succumbed to a prickling numbness, you realised that you could finally see what was attacking you.

White blocks of static hissed and jumped up your arm as they ate away at your form. The edges of your body blurred and wavered as you were pulled into the the quivering mass of wailing blocks. The entire thing was completely imperceivable against the white of the anti-void, you never would have spotted the previously silent collection of static blocks if your own body wasn't already halfway inside of it.

The uncomfortable feeling of pins and needles dug into your numbed flesh as the static whined and pulled your body in further.

Your mind realised that there was no longer any way for you to escape.

Your body was still running on the assumption that you could survive if it generated enough adrenaline.

Your Determination reared it's ugly head and screamed in your petrified face that you could still escape if you tried.

…

You were finally going to die.

…

Wasn't that what you'd wanted all along?

…

…

…

You landed with a heavy _whump!_ as the numbing static unceremoniously spat you out again. The deafening whine that had pierced your ears only moments ago faded until it remained only as a distant ringing in your head. Despite your every limb feeling as though they'd been replaced with bricks, you managed to lift your head and look around...

What you saw left you breathless.

Above you was a wide open sky filled with twinkling stars and dancing colours. Giant frozen trees towered around you, each one encased in sparkling blue ice. Pure white snow surrounded you on every side, piled so high that you were unable to properly extract yourself from the deep hole your landing had made in it. Moonlight coupled with a soft green and blue aurora lit up the undisturbed snow. Everything in sight seemed to glow or shine in some way. It was… It was…

"... so beautiful…"

You hadn't noticed Sans sitting beside you, thrown similarly into his own lump of snow. He'd completely forgotten that he was still holding onto your wrist, too busy staring up at all the glittering lights in the night sky. The colours seemed to make his face glow and reflect out of his eye sockets like stars. It seemed that he was completely awestruck with your surroundings.

'Beautiful', he'd called it. You weren't going to disagree with that… but still…

"I'm going to be _fucking sick_ …" you whined as you shivered from the cold, head spinning so hard you were surprised it hadn't twisted right off your shoulders.

"huh? w-what's wrong? you look..."

Shoulders hunched and curled in on yourself as hard as possible, you tried and failed to stop yourself from hyperventilating. You felt sick. You felt cold. Sweat was beading on your forehead and tears were gathering in your eyes.

"h-hey now. calm down! we're both fine, look! we did it, uh, somehow? we're out! don't-"

"No. No, no, no, no, _no_ , _no_ …" you hissed past the nauseous lump in your throat, "I'm gonna- I'm- 'S too much. _Too much_..."

You shook your head violently to try and rid yourself of the overwhelming feelings, but you couldn't stop the sudden assault on your senses. The cold creeping up through your skin from the air and snow; the swaying lights and trees that stretched out into the distance while simultaneously boxing you in; the faint smell of leaves and tree resin filling up your air passages, choking you with their sweet and fresh scents… You were experiencing a sensory overload - and it was _breaking_ you.

"Mrr- _ghurp!_ " you gagged on the smell of a crisp breeze as Sans stared at you like you were dying. Tears started to stream down your face as a wave of blinding terror gripped you. You felt so small under such an endless sky, filled with light and energy. Everything around you felt so startlingly _real_. It was so different from the anti-void that it made you sick.

Once upon a time you had dreamed of such a moment. A moment where you could look up at the stars and feel the wind pushing lightly against your body and finally be able to say that you were free… But you'd been outside of reality for far too long. Smells, sights, the constant sensation of solid touch, taste- god, you could _taste_ the air. It tasted like distant saltwater and sweet tree bark- even the normally easily dismissed feeling of _actual_ _gravity_ left you feeling like you were drowning. It was too much. Too much. Too _much-!_

Something grabbed onto your head and pulled you forward. The action made you gasp, and you were surprised when you didn't get another lung full of the frozen forest air. What you smelt instead was musty, like a room that hadn't been aired out in a while. It also smelled of greasy food and unwashed laundry. And yet, despite how disgusting that was, it didn't make you gag like the forest had. It was… familiar.

Feeling around with your shaking hands, you found yourself gripping onto the back of what felt like a jacket. You trailed down to a pair of arms wrapped around your head, keeping you pinned. Realising what was going on, you pressed your face harder into what was most likely a skeleton's chest, uncaring about how uncomfortable the feeling of ribs were pressing into your still partially injured nose.

Sans continued to hug you head firmly as you slowly calmed down and let your arms go limp. You were surprised to hear him whispering soothing things under his breath, repeatedly hushing you and saying it was going to be okay. All of your usual snark and hostility took a backseat as you allowed your senses to be blocked out, only leaving the familiar smell of just another Sans.

"there. you ok, bud?" Sans whispered as your breathing finally evened out.

"I... I d-don't know…" you mumbled pathetically from the folds of his shirt.

"heh. 's ok. guess you weren't kiddin' when you said you'd been in that place a while…"

Again you grumbled out some kind of reply, but you refused to lift your face up and back into whatever _sickeningly beautiful_ word you had somehow ended up in.

Speaking of that…

"What the hell is this place…?" you whispered both to yourself and to Sans. You'd thought you'd known everything about the anti-void. How could you have ever missed something like _this_?

"dunno," you felt Sans shrug, "'s not my world, i think… maybe it's another universe?"

"But how'd we get here? This doesn't… _ugh-_ doesn't make sense…"

"i think it happened when i was touching that string. we were floating along and then- i dunno, just _bam_. weird static shit. i think that was the _end of the line_ , y'know?"

"No, I _don't_ know," you huffed, cautiously raising your face and peeking out at the gorgeous snow surrounding you. It still made you feel light-headed so you made sure to hold Sans' arms in a deathgrip to make sure he wouldn't do anything stupid- like letting you go too early.

"well, ya said that all the strings have gotta come together _somewhere_ … so maybe this place is an anchor point? somethin' to keep that error guy's magic in place. the string just kinda disappeared when i hit that wall of hissin' stuff."

"I was just guessing when I said that! This doesn't make sense, I've followed the strings before and this never…?"

"did ya ever touch the strings when you followed 'em, like i did?"

...

No, you _hadn't_ , and you could practically feel Sans' smile through the top of your head as you realised your mistake.

"Why would you do that though?" you growled childishly, "Why would anyone do that? What if touching the strings like that made Error decide to turn up, huh!? What then? What if that had happened!? You're still stupid! That was a stupid thing to d- _oofgh_!"

Above you, Sans snickered as he held you closer to his chest, completely muffling your bitter ranting. You gave up pretty easily anyway, only fuming from embarrassment and the regret of not thinking to run your hands along the magic strings sooner.

Besides, despite the steam you had built up from your anger, you were quickly becoming reacquainted with the sensation of 'cold'. The air around you was likely well below freezing and the snow melting beneath you was starting to seep into your clothes. It didn't help that, aside from your coat, you were not well dressed for the sudden climate change. You wondered just what had compelled you to wear the ungodly cold combination of a t-shirt and shorts with your lovely, warm, fluffy coat. Was the pre-prisoner version of you just bumming about in their house before they were trapped? Or did they genuinely dress so poorly all the time? You honestly couldn't remember, especially when you were so busy shaking like a leaf from the sub-zero temperatures.

"uh, h-hey, don't be upset! i was just _ribbing_ ya," Sans chuckled awkwardly as you shivered, "'s not your fault you didn't know 'bout that static stuff..."

"H-huh?" you huffed through chattering teeth, "Wh-wh-what are you t-t-talking about? 'M not-t ups-s-set. It's c-c-cold as d-dicks out here!"

"cold as _what_?" the skeleton laughed, genuinely this time as he raised a brow, "'s that normal for humans?"

"Sh-sh-shut up! It's f-f-freezing!"

"yeah, you're right. i think my bones are startin' to lock up from all the ice- and that's really sayin' somethin' considering I lived in a place called snowdin. better get movin', find out where we are and all that… uh, you think you're gonna be able to stand?"

Reluctantly, you pulled yourself away from Sans and tried to get up. Almost instantly your senses picked up your environment again and you nearly doubled over from the shock.

"woah, woah! take it a bit slower, ok?"

"Yeah, I _know_ ," you spat out, much harsher than you needed to.

Pulling your hood firmly over your head to block out as much of your surroundings as possible, you began to slowly walk forward. Everything still spun as you moved, and each breath made you want to either curl up on yourself or hurl up your entire stomach, but you managed to set a slow and slightly stumbling pace.

Sans walked by your side the whole time, letting you keep one hand fisted into the cloth of his jacket to keep yourself steady. He was being incredibly patient with you, and though you knew that Patience was a common strain of magic within various Sans subsets, you couldn't help but feel that he didn't have to be as _nice_ as he was being.

You felt… bad. Not just because you felt nauseous, but because you felt kinda guilty. You'd been prepared to dump him back when the static had been seemingly consuming Sans' body. If he'd seen or heard how you had almost abandoned him to his fate, would he still act comforting and forgiving toward you? He shouldn't be so kind, what with the consistently hostile front you'd shown him.

You should have thanked him for at least soothing your panic attack, but instead you had snapped at him multiple times. But it was impossible for you to thank him when your teeth were chattering like they were. Maybe once you had found somewhere warmer you could… mumble a thanks… or something.

Glancing down, you were reminded yet again that you still didn't know what subset this new Sans was. He looked and sounded like a Classic, but he kept helping and trusting you like one of those naive little Swap/Blueberries. Then again, there were times when he seemed to get angry or passionate about things, to the point where he'd curse or lash out in anger, which neither Classics or Swaps really did…

Maybe… Maybe it was time for you to just stop wondering. He was probably right about not caring about labels. After all, you didn't like being called 'Read', so why call him a 'Classic'? You'd be a hypocrite if you didn't at least respect that point. Subsets probably didn't matter outside of the anti-void anyway. As puzzling as some of his personality was, it was easier to just call the guy Sans and be done with it. Who cared about-

"Wh-whoa- hey, _ow_! You _id-d-diot_! Why'd you st-t-t-?"

"shh!" Sans quickly hushed you, keeping a bony hand outstretched in front of you, "someone's here."

At his words you reluctantly focussed on your surroundings to try and sense any other presences. You immediately found that to be a bad idea as you realised that you could hear the shifting and clinking of frozen leaves, as well as the gentle whisper of a bitter cold breeze. Each sound swam in your head and made your stomach turn uncomfortably, forcing you to lean harder on Sans for stability.

However, despite your dizziness, you still managed to see the moment a giant wolf strutted in front of you, practically tip-toeing on top of the knee high snow you'd been dumped into. Tossing its head and gracefully flipping its long mane around in the starlight, the wolf stared directly at the two of you with a glint of amusement in it's eyes.

And then the strangest thing that had happened to you yet… happened.

The wolf opened it's mouth and spoke.

In Korean.

"흠? 이것은 무엇입니까?"

* * *

...

...

...

Please note that I never actually studied Korean! (I used Google translate so it'll probably be really wonky sounding to native speakers...) I won't use it very often, but it's kinda important to me that I use it- at least as accuracy to the source material.


	9. Path: UnderArticLauncherexeApp

Quick Note: Someone asked me if I based the Chapter titles on computer code. The answer is yes, but FFnet registers the codes and deletes them- so they're actually horribly simplified. AO3 has a more accurate version as it does not attempt to delete or register most CC programming or similar codes.

Today's chapter is short! Hope you don't mind!

...

...

...

* * *

Knowing that the multiverse was an infinite space of countless possibilities was actually a pretty easy concept to understand once you got used to it. Thinking about how you might be a different gender or a different species was actually pretty amusing sometimes and was a good way to fill time when you couldn't sleep. You also had first hand experience with meeting multiple versions of the same person over and over, so generally you thought that you were quite knowledgeable in the 'multiversal possibilities' department.

And yet, despite being so familiar with the concept of literally anything and everything existing somewhere as long as there was a universe to spawn it, you were completely unprepared for the sight of a silky purple wolf strutting through a frozen forest just to start speaking Korean at you.

"내가 당신 을 인식 할 생각 …"

The wolf swayed itself closer, making every step an unnecessary show of grace as it towered over you. It wasn't until it leaned down to analyse a very uncomfortable Sans you noted just how _big_ the creature was. Sure, it had the added height from somehow standing on the snow without sinking through it, but you guessed that it would still be taller than you even on level ground.

Both you and Sans remained motionless under the wolf's stare, shocked and bewildered at the sudden and highly unusual turn of events.

"Uh, S-s-sans, is this a m-m-monster?" you whispered, each word coming out as a white huff of warm breath, "C-c-can you und-derstand what t-t-they're s-s-saying?"

"i… don't know?" Sans shrugged, equally confused at the encounter. The wolf, however, seemed to come to some kind of realisation.

"오! Sans!" they suddenly shouted, perking up slightly as they sniffed you both again, "왜 당신은 그 이상한 옷을 입고 있습니까? 그들은 끔찍한 봐!"

The two of you merely exchanged strange looks as the purple creature patiently wagged it's fluffy tail. Not only was the wolf speaking in a language neither of you could figure out, but they had some kind of strange lit to their voice that made them pretty much incomprehensible. You had absolutely _zero_ chance of understanding a word they were saying.

Despite this, Sans decided to just roll with it and introduce himself anyway.

" _yeeeaaaaah_... name's sans. nice ta meetcha."

He held out a hand which the wolf stared at quizzically, not even bothering to sniff it before turning their nose up at it. Sans responded by shrugging and putting his hand back in his pocket, desperately pretending that he wasn't feeling awkward about the whole interaction. A long and uncomfortable pause followed, the only sound filling the air being your quietly chattering teeth.

After staring each other down for another moment, Sans finally decided that you'd both had enough of whatever weirdness was going on.

"well!" he began, chuckling as he tried to subtly pull you away into the trees, "this was a great chat. gotta go now though, so-"

Suddenly the wolf jumped to attention again, kicking up a bit of snow in its excitement and startling both Sans and yourself.

It reached a paw up to the fur of it's neck, pushing around it's mane to reveal a small silver box with an inverted pink heart on the front. It struggled for a moment with the heart before managing to turn it like a knob, making it right side up. A chime rang through the area as the device seemed to activate, illuminating the area around the wolf with a dazzling pink glow.

It smiled smugly once the mechanism lit up, "There! Now you can well understand!"

"oh." Sans responded numbly, still staring in bewilderment. You were similarly shocked, but your slowly freezing body was starting to take priority over whatever weirdness was happening in front of you.

Pinching his shoulders with numb fingers, you managed to make the stunned skeleton jump in a way that would have been amusing if you weren't well on your way to becoming a human popsicle.

" _wh_ -!? ah, heh, yeah, so… that's interesting. we kinda have to get somewhere warm though. like, right now. d'you know somewhere close we can go?"

"Hmm~? Sans is lost? Very odd…" the wolf hummed, unconcerned with how you were obviously freezing, "And why are you so far from home so late? Not making sense, I think."

"... i'm sorry? do i know you or somethin'?"

The wolf gasped dramatically, raising a paw to its chest and pulling a pained expression.

"Oh, my god! You are absolutely okay?" it whimpered with tears sparkling in its eyes, "How could you forget such a _wonderful_ me? It breaks my heart~ How could you be so cruel, darling?"

You shook your head as Sans shot you a confused look. The wolf seemed to expect Sans to recognize it, which could only mean…

"Th-th-this is d-deff-finetely an-n-nother univ-v-verse," you whispered quietly as Sans nodded, "Th-there mus-s-t be another v-version of you h-here who kn-knows this-s guy..."

"well, you're the one who has the most experience with multiverse stuff," the skeletal monster whispered back, still grinning uncomfortably at the wolf across from you, "what am i supposed to say?"

"It-t d-d-doesn't matt-ter! J-just lie or s-s-something! If-f we hav-v-ve to st-tand out here m-much longer I'm g-g-gonna freeze!"

Clearing his throat as if he had one, Sans directed his attention back to the wolf, who tilted their head in curiosity.

"i, uh... have… amnesia…?"

...

God, if you weren't so busy hugging your arms to your shaking body you probably would have slapped your hand over your face at the obvious lie. Or maybe you would've slapped Sans' face instead for being so _unbelievably stupid_. _Amnesia? SERIOUSLY!?_ That was the _best lie_ _he could come up with_!?

Luckily for you, the wolf was also pretty dull, because they believed the poorly delivered bluff without question.

"Hmm… If you don't remember, then… Come with me, dear! I am going the way to my warm lair! You are very warmly as soon as we get there."

Leaving no room for argument, the wolf quickly circled behind you and began to push you forwards with its muzzle. You yelped and stumbled, but Sans was quick to keep you upright.

"this place isn't far, right?" Sans asked from under the loop of your arm.

"No, no! Not far!" the wolf yelped excitedly, running ahead over the snow as you shivered and dragged yourself through the knee-high white garbage.

Despite all the dancing colours reflecting off both the snow and the ice covering the trees, it was pretty obvious that it was night time wherever the hell you were. The night sky, though filled with stars and an almost full moon, made trudging through the snowy woods nigh impossible. The cold was pretty much unbearable and the darkness made navigating all the worse. You were thankful for the pink light emanating from the wolf, because the annoying bastard would often gallop quite a distance ahead of you and then pause amongst the trees as you dragged your sorry asses after it.

You were really starting to hate the damned creature; not only was it unhindered by the snow and covered in warm, flowing fur, but every time you caught up with it and could clearly see its smug muzzle again you swore that it was taking joy from seeing you quickly deteriorating in the harsh winter environment it was leading you through.

It was probably your jealousy talking, but you really wanted to shave the stupid animal's fur off and see how _they_ liked being left freezing in the snow. A silky purple fur coat would probably suit you.

It would also… p-probably… s-save your... l… ife…

"hey, _hey_! stay awake! fallin' asleep in this kinda weather will kill you."

"Oh? Is something wrong with the darling?"

You thought you felt something brush along your cheek, but couldn't be sure. Not only was your skin going numb from the cold, but snow and ice was collecting all over your body, including your face. Forcing your eyes open, you saw Sans worriedly patting you on the cheek, trying to keep you conscious.

Admittedly he wasn't much help. Similarly to you, his clothes and body was quickly collecting layers of freezing cold snow over it. You could even see ice trying to form within the joints of the hand he was tapping you with, no doubt only kept at bay by constant conscious friction to the area.

"c'mon bud, stay awake. i know you're not f- _feelin' so_ _hot_ , yeah? h-heh heh... just- we _have_ to keep moving." Desperately, Sans started shaking you by the shoulders as you blinked dazedly at him with snow dusted eyelashes, " _please_ -! we're both gonna die out here if we don't move faster!"

"It… t's… to… o... c… col… d…"

Your voice was weak as you just barely managed to breathe out your words. Very little of your body was still available to you sensory wise. You limbs were heavy and numb, long past the point where you could feel them anymore. Everything seemed to be slowing down, even your own heart. It felt as though ice was chugging through your veins - and given your surroundings it probably was. You had probably stopped moving at some point, probably, but you couldn't really tell when everything seemed so… distant.

With drooping eyelids you were filled only with thought of sleep.

Ah, sleep. Your reliable friend.

You could always count on sleep to rid you of your most pathetic states and take you to places where the pain wasn't real and your memories were like movies.

Yes, sleeping… sounded… r-really… good…

...

"I have good ideas! Allow me to carry the friend! Much warming with my fur~"

"yeah, yes, yeah, okay! do that quick! they're not lookin' good…"

"Okay, but only one people for trip! Sans, friend, must still walk."

"sure. i think i can deal with that…"

Very suddenly you came into contact with something soft and warm. Oh good and merciful gods, it was _heavenly~!_ You had never felt such comfort before in your entire life! (Well, at least within memory, but such a beautiful heat source was completely deserving of such over exaggerated praise in your possibly frost-bitten brain)

With a tiny, pleased sound you happily buried your frost covered face deep into whatever you were lying on.

" _-ugh-_ Yes, see? Friend is liking my warm fur!"

"yeah, thanks, pal. they might actually make it…"

"Once again, I am besting myself! Such generosity is never seen! Imagine, lonely me on my night stroll, saving lives of poor, memory-less Sans and mysterious friend through the forest, on mine own time… So perhaps you praise me _more_ , darling."

"uh… yea. thanks for saving our butts. quick question though: can you remind me of a few things? y'know, 'cause of the… memory… stuff."

"Hmm? Oh, okay! I tell you about wonderful translator I have here! You still like things such as this, even without memory?"

"not… what i wanted to start with, but sure."

"Strange, you don't remember. Translator is made by old friend of yours. A great spiritual. Wires connection to my Soul, to help you understand."

"... wow, they sure did a _great_ job…"

"Oh, yes~! Now you share!"

"huh? 'i share'?"

"Yes! Tell me, what are _your_ strings?"

"m-my- ?"

Despite the warmth slowly defrosting you, the conversation you had (up until now) been treating as background noise frozen your body over faster than a blizzard. The strings- Error's strings- you'd forgotten-!

"i- i don't see 'em anywhere. where are they?"

"Huh? Did I imagine? I'm very good at sight, so I thought I'm seeing glassy strings. Very thin and connecting to Souls of both of you like me…"

"ah… heh… j-just your imagination, pal. don't worry about it."

Don't worry about it, your arse. You were going to worry about it! You were going to worry about it a lot! If Error's strings were still attached to you, no matter how weak, it was bad news for you. It meant you _weren't safe_. It meant you would never _be_ safe. _Ever_.

But if they were glassy and thin like the wolf described… then maybe you would be able to break them? It was a long shot, but maybe if you were lucky…

Peeling open your reluctant eyes, you flexed your fingers and toes in preparation to move. Purple fur invaded your nose as you twisted your body in small increments, trying to reach a numb hand to your chest and find the strings that you knew had to be there.

"shh, stop, it's fine," a whisper came from your left as a _fucking_ _icicle_ wrapped around your wrist.

Reflexively you ripped your hand away from the cold, squinting at whatever ice-cube had just dared to try and steal your precious heat away. To your surprise, you found Sans, even more blue than usual thanks to the fine coating of ice that created a sheen over most of his body.

What the hell? He'd been talking so casually, and not even for that long for that matter! How'd the guy change from being a skeleton man to a snowman in such a short amount of time!? Had you fallen asleep at some point in the conversation and not noticed? Or was it really that cold out?

"heh, what's wrong? ya think a lil ice is gonna get me down? trust me, _snow_ problem," Sans winked as he joked and you could literally _hear_ the ice crack and shift with the movement, "'s not like i can feel the cold, it just _goes right through me_! guess you could say it's a pretty _ice_ perk of being a skeleto-"

"Stop. I have heard literally - _every_ \- snow and ice joke that you could EVER tell me one hundred _million_ times over. So DO NOT start with me."

"... well that just sounds like a _fibula_."

"I have also heard every skeleton joke! _So don't keep pushing it or so help me-!_ "

"Sorry to be interrupting," the wolf suddenly piped up, voice humming through its back that you were only just realising that you were lying on, "but I would liking another question, last one was no good."

Sans simply smiled cheekily through the ice on his face, "heh heh, sure."

"Sans, darling, are you really not remember me?"

That seemed to kill the skeleton's good mood slightly, as the cheerful lights in his eyes shrunk somewhat in distress.

"heh, yeaaaah… damn that amnesia, making me forget shit. what a _numbskull_ , amirite?"

You groaned as Sans winked at you playfully.

"Yes. Hard to believe, but I do. After all, if you remembering me, you be smart enough not to follow~"

"what" - _SNAP_ \- " _the FUCK!_ "

"Sans! Wh- _Aah_!"

You shouted as you were thrown face first into the cold, unforgiving snow once more. Sitting up you quickly swiped the clumps of white snowfall off your face so you could see.

Vision restored, you twisted around to spot the area where you could hear Sans cursing and struggling with something- only to get full-body tackled back down by a giant purple mutt.

"Hahahaha! Oh, worth it! Worth it! The suspense is that makes it worthy!" they cooed as a large paw slammed down on your chest, keeping you pinned and struggling to breathe, "You _actually_ follow me? Ah, this is pretty funny!"

"what the _hell_!? you tricked us!"

It was hard to see from where you were trapped underneath the wolf, but you could just barely make out Sans as he struggled with some kind of bear trap around his leg. Well, maybe it wasn't _actually_ a bear trap- it didn't look strong enough to be a bear trap, what with being made of mostly incredibly sturdy sticks and lacking the serrated teeth for gripping- it seemed more like a… wolf… trap…

"Ah, ah, ah! Not trick if it is your fault! You forgot to be afraid of me, darling. I am a wolf who prowls these woods, I am the very feared and very great monster! You forget the beautiful and terrifying me!? I am love in monsters hearts for my beauty, and fear in their hearts for my cruelness~"

Smiling with a full maw of sharp, glistening teeth, the wolf (literally) barked out laughing.

"Oh, Sans, Sans, _Sans_ ~ I am the legendary _Mettaton_! And I'm going to enjoy the tears you cry out."

* * *

...

...

...

So now that the twists have been (slightly) revealed, here's the creator of the AU that our dubious duo have face planted in- judefxxk on Tumblr!

UnderArtic hasn't been active for a while now I think, but I've always enjoyed an AU with a bit more of a twist to it than normal. Not only is it cute, but it's very unique in some ways too! The creator of the AU mainly speaks Korean and uses translators to speak with English viewers, so I simply pumped Mettaton's dialogue through some translators a few hundred times to reach a similar effect! It's actually really cute...

Also! Here's judefxxk's Mettaton design- (replace - with . because this site hates links) - judefxxk-tumblr-com/post/138989626715/underarctic-mettaton-he-seems-to-cant-speak-human

Just look at the majestic monster! He's described as being incredibly vain and enjoys the terrified screams of others. From what I understand, it's for that reason that he lives in the woods away from the main towns and cannot perform human speak.

(Also, if I had a dollar for every Undertale fic that includes the pun _fibula_ I would be able to pay for an internet connection instead of leeching off public Wifi)


	10. functionUpdate()transformLookAt(Reader)

Would you believe me if I said those translators came back to bite me? 'Cause they seriously came back to bite me. I had to actually _add words_ to make Mettaton's dialogue understandable!

...

...

...

* * *

"what? no. you can't be mettaton!"

"Oh I _am_ Mettaton~!" the wolf giggled, "Are you remembering now, Sansy?"

"i- you-!"

The skeleton shot you a disbelieving look as he sat half frozen in the snow, leg caught firmly in the wolf trap. You shot him one back that said ' _Don't ask for my help!_ ' and went back to trying to shove the overgrown dog's paw off your chest.

The wolf, named Mettaton apparently, laughed at your struggling and pressed down hard enough for you to feel your ribs bend into your lungs. He smiled as you fought to breathe, pushing the air right back out of your body whenever you managed to gasp any in. You returned his smirk with a glare. Of course you hadn't been imagining things earlier; the look you kept spotting on the creature's face was one of sick enjoyment. It was one you'd learned well in the anti-void.

The sound of rattling saved you as Mettaton turned toward it, unintentionally removing some of his weight with the movement. You gulped down the freezing cold air so hard you almost choked.

Across from you, Sans was vigorously shaking the trap on his leg, furiously trying to pry it off. His eyes were black voids as he stared down the smiling wolf. Even though he was in a vulnerable position it looked like he wanted to make it clear just how _pissed_ he was at the creature's betrayal.

"Oh so, irony!" Mettaton declared with a click of his tongue, "Sans, monster villager, trapped in his own cage made for me! You've always been cruel at me, darling."

"i didn't- i don't even know you!" Sans yelled back in frustration, the ice forming around his body cracking and scraping as he moved.

"Oh, yes, amnesia…" the wolf scoffed, lifting its paw from you to flick its mane haughtily- only to slam it back down before you could roll out of the way and snickering at the wheeze you released. "Not as satisfy when are not being remembers. But still enough to enjoy~!" He punctuated his statement by suddenly jumping and landing both his front paws square on your chest, making you choke. Damn, he was heavy! Just a bit more pressure and one of your ribs could end up cracked…

You were given a moment to collect yourself as Mettaton bounded playfully around you like a pup with a new toy. With nothing holding you down you were able to roll onto your side and almost hack up a lung from your coughing. It would have been a good opportunity to run or fight… if you weren't already halfway frozen again.

What kind of hell had you landed in that you could become so cold so fast!? The feeling of snow melting and freezing itself into your clothes and over your unprotected skin was one of the worst sensations you had ever experienced. You'd never been subject to something so slow and torturous in the anti-void - probably because the only resident there capable of such extensive manipulation was usually more focussed on breaking bones- y'know, more familiar territory.

"no, stop! you don't understand!" Sans continued to yell as the wolf giddily kicked up powdered snow over your head, "i really _don't_ _know_ you! we came here from a different universe!"

...

You hoped the look you shot the skeleton really communicated just how fed up you were with his constant idiocy. The moment of silence seemed to stretch on for eons before Mettaton just about doubled over laughing, the sound making your dead stare look all the more dry.

"D-different - _snrk!_ \- different universe!" the wolf practically howled with laughter, "Poor Sans, you broke! Worse than forgetting! Now you are all mad in your skull, too!"

Very suddenly the laughter stopped. With a single leap the wolf launched itself over your body and landed directly in front of Sans, teeth bared in a ferocious growl. The skeleton tried to back up as the creature loomed over him, jaws snapping and drool gathering in its maw, but was held in place by the wolf trap and its chain anchored deep in the snow.

"Even without remember; _do not mock me_." it growled, jaws snapping as it brought its muzzle down in front of Sans' face, "I am deserving more, _Sans_. I dislike your joke of me. I want your fear. Look at me and see all dust I spill, see the children cry and night scare I bring. _Fear_. Fear and _admire_ , Sans."

A tense moment passed as Sans and Mettaton locked eyes, the wolf staring into the dull lights in the skeleton's sockets, practically daring the trapped monster to give him a reason to snap his teeth down over his head.

You watched the interaction from the you-shaped hole Mettaton had made in the snow with your body, feeling around with subtle movements for some kind of weapon. You'd hoped you could find something lying nearby, but all you seemed to grab ahold of was more snow. It was ridiculous! Everything in the universe you'd landed in was solid, it existed, and it was _everywhere_! So why couldn't you find a half decent weapon in a reality where everything seemed so _present_?

Reaching further, your fingers grazed against something smooth and just as numbingly cold as the rest of the forest. Looking up you found your hand brushing against a large tree; its frozen surface shining a sparkling blue beneath your touch. There was no way you could reach any of the branches that towered above you, and any that had fallen in the past were likely buried deep beneath the snow; but the roots had accumulated large ice pikes around the base of the tree, creating a sharp circumference of spikes each as long as your forearm. Any one was potentially perfect for a stabbing weapon- if you could snap one off quickly enough, that was.

To his credit, Sans didn't let his eyes flicker even once in your direction as you began to move, instead continuing to meet Mettaton's gaze directly as you quietly stood and wrapped your hands around the nearest icicle. He smiled wider as you readied to snap off your new weapon, making the wolf growl threateningly as he watched the Sans' expression empty of fear. Without even looking at you properly, the smug skeleton seemed to know what you were thinking, and was eager to play the distraction.

"y'know what, mettaton? ya could be right. maybe i don't know _you_ after all," Sans laughed with a shrug and a relaxed smile, "but even if you're not the mettaton i know, you're still _all bark_ and _no bite_." To add insult to injury, he even added little jazz hands to his joke as Mettaton quite literally howled in rage.

A large, clawed paw was slammed down on the skeleton's chest, making him gasp as a pair of snarling, jagged jaws came snapping down over his head. However, just before the enraged animal could crush his skull between its jaws, you snapped the icicle clean off the tree's base and launched yourself at the stupid creature.

The sound of thick ice colliding with the side of Mettaton's face echoed sickeningly through the woods along with his pained yelp. You couldn't help but smile at your little victory. It was a good feeling, to be able to hurt someone who'd hurt you first. It made you feel _powerful_ \- for all of two seconds before Mettaton was turning his rage-filled sight on you.

He lunged at you with his full body, knocking you back but not quite tripping you over. You raised the icicle with both hands and managed to catch the creature's jaw on it, watching in horror as sharp teeth ground into the ice and a fat tongue wriggled about in the wolf's eagerness to chew through the obstacle and rip open your flesh.

"Sans! Do something!" you yelled as you tried to push the wild animal back.

"'m tryin'! i've _been_ tryin' since i got stuck! 's not working for some reason!"

With a mad laugh the wolf gripped its teeth onto the icicle and reared itself upwards onto its hind legs. The unexpected action pulled you forward and even upwards as you desperately gripped onto your frozen weapon. Before you knew it you were slammed back into the snow again, Mettaton's full weight keeping you pinned as he lay diagonally over your torso. The ice was ripped from your hands, an unsettling peeling sensation occurring on your palms as your skin was pulled away from the freezing object. With a resounding _snap_ and the sound of ice splinters falling into the snow, your weapon was no more and the window of escape firmly slammed down on your fingers.

"Oh ho ho~ Oh, you try, you try!" Mettaton laughed as you angrily punched and pulled at his fur, "Almost having me, but too smart! Too bad Sans makes bad memory _and_ bad traps! You forget; cannot magic in trap!"

You groaned as Sans' eyes widened and he looked over the wolf trap once more. Of _course_ the trap was magic proof. Because that was just your luck, wasn't it? Why hadn't you taken Mettaton's moment of distraction to run away? What use was there in saving Sans anyway? The guy had proven himself to be a damsel in distress more often than not and was practically twice as useless.

"Ooh, but friend is brave! You are human?"

A smug and curious snout was immediately pressed into your face, sniffing and wetting you with the tip of a disgusting and cold nose.

"Haven't you heard of personal space?" you growled as you swung an angry fist at the prying muzzle. That turned out to be a mistake, however, as your arm was quickly caught between two sets of razor sharp teeth.

"Careful, darling," the translator buzzed even while the wolf's mouth was occupied with your forearm, "You see what I do to ice. Humans are soft…"

Your only response was an emotionless stare. Having your arm broken wasn't a threat to you, it was a common hazard in your pitiful life. If Mettaton simply got up and left you to freeze in the snow it would actually be more intimidating in its uniqueness. Having your body snapped, broken and bled out was something you'd already adjusted to long ago. At some points you'd even purposefully tried to tempt others into making it happen so you could finally 'escape'.

Actually, since the offer had come up…

"Go for it."

Bemused, the wolf stared down at you, shifting its weight in interest and accidentally making you more comfortable as a pointy joint was moved from your stomach to your more resistant lower ribs.

"Huh? You want death? Oh! I see! Die by famous paw! Yes, you will be remember forever as victim!"

"Sure. Whatever."

The wolf snickered in amusement as it sank its teeth through a few layers of your skin. It eyed you carefully for any signs of pain as blood slowly beaded and dripped from its teeth, staining your jacket and your skin in thin trails. However, you didn't even flinch. In fact, part of you was disappointed in the display. Just a few layers of skin? _You_ could do worse to _yourself_. If the animal actually intended to kill you, it really sucked at it.

Realising that pain had no effect on you, Mettaton huffed and dropped your arm from his mouth, sticking out his stained tongue.

" _Ugh. Sour._ " he complained, though he didn't move off of you. His gaze landed back on Sans, who still hadn't managed to free himself and was staring nervously at your blood soaking into the snow.

You watched as Mettaton's expression morphed into one of mischief and he stood, one paw strategically placed on your chest to keep you pinned.

"What's shame, you taste bad. But no waste left in my forest sooo… I'll have to eat fast!"

Before you could even blink, Mettaton's teeth were around your throat. You felt your breath catch as you waited for them to snap shut, crushing your neck and ripping you open. It wouldn't be a pretty death. It would be painful. But if it meant that you never had to wake up again… then it would be alright in the end.

But there was no pain. The teeth remained around your neck unmoving as Mettaton looked at Sans with a twitch of a smirk.

"Hmm? Objection, Sans?" he crooned as he blinked innocently.

"what? no… i… don't even know that person."

"Right, you don't knowing anyone. Amnesia must be hard," Mettaton mockingly soothed, "Must why you are attached. Knowing no one, and you must be lonely! Only one friend in the world and also glorious Mettaton! Would be sad if friend die…"

"... they'd thank you for it. it- it's not my business."

Twisting your head as much as possible, you managed to spot Sans over the top of the wolf's muzzle. He was still trapped and sitting uselessly in the snow, head turned to the side and away from you.

"Oh? You never be sad? Ah, cruel Sans! It really does not matter for you?"

The question made the skeleton flinch a little- just enough for his eyes to wander and lock with yours. In that moment he didn't look like the same Sans who'd harassed you into waking up and joining him on a mad escape plan. His sockets seemed deeper and deathly tired. His body appeared more heavy and limp. All the enthusiasm and confidence looked to have up and left his bones, leaving him hollow and dry.

You'd seen that look a thousand times. You could even say that it was a _classic_ among your temporary visitors in the anti-void.

"no. it doesn't matter." he mumbled.

It was then that you realised: Sans had finally given up.

On _you_.

That… made something twist inside of you. After all the fuss he'd kicked up, after all the convincing and frustration, he just… gave up on you. And why not? What was there to gain from someone who had been so eagerly awaiting death like you had? Why put in the effort to care about someone who pushed others away? He'd finally accepted your want to give up. He was willing to let you die.

You knew you deserved his apathy. You just hadn't expected finally hearing it to hurt like it did.

"- _pfft, fun ruin_ \- Well! If no matter, then I taking friend to my lair like promise! Too cold to eat here, and so late out!"

Moving his teeth from your neck to your collar, Mettaton hurled you onto his back with a single strong flick of his head. You landed uncomfortably on his shoulder blades, but didn't move or make a sound. You were going to die soon anyway. Sans had gotten the gist of it: it didn't matter.

"But you're stay here until dawn!" the wolf crooned as he leaned over the ice-covered skeleton, "I like my treat frozen! Try not to falling asleep! Or do~ You won't feel the freeze if you sleep! Hahaha!"

With a final round of mocking laughter ringing throughout the forest, Mettaton bounded giddily away with you on his back.

You didn't move to look at Sans as you were taken away, too busy thinking. You could barely even believe that you'd _actually tried_ to fight the wolf earlier. Death was something you'd both been expecting and hoping for when you agreed to the skeleton's plan… Even if it had been for a single brief moment, why had you forgotten that?

You would have chalked it up to your human Determination again if not for your past experiences with it. Determination only ever seemed to rear its ugly head when you were about to die, not make you forget about the possibility of death entirely. Sure, maybe a part of you had experienced a surge of determination when you moved to attack the wolf, but it wasn't Determination that made you want to seek out a weapon and defend Sans and yourself in the first place.

Not that any of that mattered when you were about to become wolf kibble. It was just a bit… _unsatisfying_ to know you were going to die in such a way. Remembering Sans' promises of a safe universe away from Error only made you more annoyed. That bastard, promising things that you knew he would never deliver on. He'd probably go on to meet many more weirdos from many more universes, going through emotional highs and lows as he searched for the time travelling Soul that would eventually restore his world. You were just an introductory character in the first act of his quest; killed off to make the audience sad and remind the main character that their journey would be filled with angst and regret. Would it all be worth it in the end? Would it be a happy ending? Or would it be a bittersweet one where your face was just one among many who died along the way?

… What the hell were you even on about?

You couldn't help but snicker at your dramatization of your incoming doom. Maybe you should've written a book, just for kicks. Too bad no one ever left a pen and paper floating around in the anti-void for you to use. Or a computer for that matter. Or a typewriter.

Oh, who were you kidding. You were a _Reader_ , not a writer. Writing required motivation and you simply weren't-

 _WHUMP!_

"We are heeereee~!"

As you got used to your back suddenly being in contact with cold, lumpy stone, you tilted your head back and stared disinterested (and upside down) at the cave you'd been carried to. The walls were covered in glittering crystals of deep blue and the occasional red, forming natural patterns almost comparable to the lines on a computer chip. In one corner there was a pile of quilts, rugs, silken sheets, and satin pillows (likely Mettaton's bed). The rest of the room contained trinkets, gold, toys, baubles, sticks, gems, bones and the occasional jar filled with dust. It was also warmer than outside, which was all you really cared about in the end.

"Oh ho ho! Now we will be finding if I bring you pain, proper!" Mettaton boasted as he smiled down at you.

"Uh-huh."

Disgust and irritation painted the wolf's features as he side-eyed your bored expression. Taking a moment to huff dramatically and toss his mane yet again, Mettaton grabbed you by the hood of your coat and dragged you over the floor to his weird pile of treasure. He left you there a moment as he searched through the miscellaneous junk for something, occasionally looking back to see if you were going to try and escape. He almost seemed disappointed when you didn't.

Finally he made a noise of victory, pulling out an old magnifying glass from among the piles and piles of various odds and ends. He trotted back over to you quickly, dumping the glass onto your chest and seating himself comfortably over your legs, fore-paws crossed confidently over your stomach.

"I see! Very human!" he hummed in amusement as he stared at the magnifying glass, "Up side Soul with bright colour. Hmm, but maybe not so bright? And strings! What are your strings for? No lying this time!"

At the mention of strings you perked up once more. Looking down at the magnifying glass over your chest, you could see something shining. Instead of magnifying things like you would expect, the glass on your chest seemed to show something entirely different. The distortion created from your odd angle made it difficult to see anything other than darkness and a few faint lines of blue.

Lines of blue…

A mixture of anger and fear seeped through you at the thought of Error's strings still being attached to you. You couldn't feel them, but knowing they were there made you want to rip them out. You didn't want to be found by that lunatic, he'd just drag you back to the anti-void for another round of isolated hell. Being mauled to death by a flashy canine wasn't the way you had thought you would go out, but you'd be damned if it got interrupted like all those other times.

But Mettaton didn't like it when you tried to reach down and do something about the damn things, uncrossing his paws and pressing them over your wrists to keep them pinned, growling in your face in a way that was actually pretty intimidating.

"Do _not_ move, _prey_." he snarled at you before falling back into his smug demeanor again, "I'll ask again: What are your strings?"

"None of your damn business." you spat back as you continued to wriggle.

"Ooh~ a secrets!" Mettaton cooed happily and wagged his fluffy tail, "Oh, doing tell me, darling! I'm _love_ the gossip."

You grinned with an obvious hint of bared teeth.

"Let go of my hands and maybe I'll tell you."

That, of course, made the creature start laughing again. Though, instead of lunging at you like he'd lunged at Sans after his 'joke', Mettaton simply continued to watch you with amusement shining in his eyes.

"I supposed, if it is secret, I'll just guess?" he hummed mischievously, "Hmm, ooh~ Matching strings? Are you and Sans, may being… tied by fates?"

Another round of laughter erupted from him as you gave an unamused glare. As scrambled as the wolf's words were thanks to his shitty translator, you still caught his insinuation. It didn't make you laugh.

Fate wasn't real anyway. Well, unless you could count the method through which the multiverse calculated and created every action until every possible scenario was acted out at least once as ' _fate_ '. If you lived in a universe which existed so that certain scenarios would happen, then perhaps the people who were drawn together by universal requirements could be considered to have 'met by fate'. But Sans and you had met outside of reality, so even in its most clinical terms 'fate' had nothing to do with anything.

You probably would have explained that to the giggling canine, but you had a feeling that he wouldn't care about your philosophical ranting.

Completely unaware of your internal eye-rolling, Mettaton continued mocking you, "Oh, but how sad! Fate being rebelled by Sans! He abandons you, friend. Now you and Soul belonging to the big, badly wolf~"

You craned your head away from the creature as much as possible as he leaned down to smile smugly in your face, eyes cruel and piercing and nothing that you hadn't already seen before.

"Do you know the respecting I will have with human's Soul? Mettaton: the fearing wolf, breaking of barrier and most beautiful cruel monster! Oh, I like it very much!"

"Oh, so you're one of those 'trapped above ground' types," you muttered, more to yourself than to the wolf. But Mettaton still heard your words and tilted his head.

"'Above ground'?" he repeated, "Yes, being above ground, but so cold! The lights barrier are pretty in our sky, but how can I find somewhere warmly when blocking? Snow is so wet! Every day is ruin my poor fur! I deserve better, drying spot where I more people see me beautiful! Don't you agree?"

"I'm sure I wouldn't even if I knew what you were saying."

" _Humph_! Well, you do not needing to understand! I hearing that there is human in the town and get _very_ excited. Soul for me to pass barrier with! I'm sure that King can be collecting the seven one later- yours is for _me_ _only_ darling~"

In an instant the smug smiles and relaxed posture of the wolf was gone, replaced by raised haunches and bared fangs. It was easy to figure out that your little chat had come to a sudden conclusion.

As Mettaton stood, snarling and snapping over your face, you at least hoped that he would kill you quickly. It would be boring for both of you if he decided to draw things out. Though, maybe if he did Sans would have more time to escape from that trap back in the forest. Wait, why were you thinking of that? It didn't matter if that guy died or not. You wouldn't even be around to care anyway. But maybe if he lived... your life would have had some meaning after all?

...

Nah, that guy was doomed.

With a deep growl and a final snarled ' _Goodbyes, darling_ ', Mettaton went straight for you jugular. You quickly guessed that, unlike before, he had no intention of performing a second fake out.

However, that didn't stop him from getting blindsided by a wave of large bones.

The whimpering wolf was thrown halfway across the cave where he landed with a _crash_ and the sound of a lot of his trinkets falling and scattering across the cave floor. Before you could figure out what was happening and why _you were_ _still alive? seriously? god damnit?_ , Sans appeared out of nowhere with one of the greatest one liners fit for the history books;

"hi."


	11. Anti-VoidText -- StringEmpty

"surprised?"

"... A bit," you admitted from your position on the floor. "How the hell did you get here so fast?"

"i-" Sans began, right before a furious howl filled the cave, "-'ll tell you once we get outta here."

Without waiting for your response, Sans grabbed you by the hand and somehow hauled you to your feet in one smooth motion. And it was a good thing he did too, since you weren't so sure you would have bothered to get up otherwise.

From the far wall of the cave, Mettaton leapt up and over his scattered trinkets, barking furiously and hissing with static. You didn't get much of a chance to look at the enraged creature before you were being pulled hurriedly away through the cave.

You honestly hadn't expected to be rescued so fast (or at all if you were going to be honest) and the sudden shift in events had caught you off guard. Before Sans had arrived you'd already accepted that you would die, but once he started to drag you by the wrist and out of Mettaton's lair you felt… strange. Even though there was a snarling and blood-thirsty wolf not even twenty paces behind you, your attention was focussed solely on the conflict inside of you.

Determination seemed to be the biggest factor that made you blindly stumble behind the skeleton dragging you through the snow. As always, it wanted you to keep going- keep surviving- for as long as you had the opportunity. And, as always, your apathy tried to push it down. _Lie down, don't run. It doesn't matter. You'll only die later anyway. It would mean less effort,_ it seemed to whisper to you- but you couldn't seem to follow it's advice. Instead you found yourself staring at Sans as he desperately dragged you to safety.

Before you were briefly taken by Mettaton, the look on Sans' face had told you that he had given up on you entirely. What made him change his mind? What made you worthwhile enough to chase down and rescue after he so plainly said he didn't care?

You didn't understand.

"ah c-crap _-huff-_ does this _-huff-_ this forest g-go on _-huff-_ forever!?"

The two of you stopped as Sans put his free hand on his knee and wheezed like a dying man. As you watched the stubby skeleton experience some sort of lung-free asthma attack, you dully realised that you yourself weren't exhausted at all. In fact, stopping for a break from your totally action packed escape that you had definitely been paying attention to made you aware that hadn't _once_ felt your heart rate pick up, let alone broken a sweat.

As you stared blankly at the recovering skeleton, you couldn't help but let slip an observation:

"Wow. You're unfit."

"h-heheheh," Sans laughed between breaths, thick beads of sweat rolling down his temples, "looks that way, huh? 'least that tin can can't- uh, i mean… t-tin? nah … f-furball?- y-yeah he's _-huff-_ not gonna be able to catch up so easy."

Wait, you'd lost your pursuer that quickly? You hadn't even noticed, as absorbed in thought as you'd been. Confused and doubtful, you looked up and around the frozen forest surrounding you. Distantly you could hear the echoes of threatening barks and furious snarls, but the area you stood in was completely clear of danger. In fact, it was so clear that you couldn't even see your own footprints in the snow; they seemed to just suddenly appear out of nowhere a few paces back.

"Uh? How…?"

"t-turns out this world has a void too!" Sans chuckled in response to your question, "works just like what i'm used to. you probably didn't even notice when i was pullin' us through it. what can i say? i really hate runnin'! heheh h-heh… _-heeeeh-_..."

His laughter was followed by another round of wheezing as you stared dumbfounded at the skeleton. For as much as he liked to joke about being lazy, it seemed as though using the weird void magic he'd ranted about in the anti-void to 'teleport' you away from Mettaton did a big number on him. From the state of him you wondered if he might have been better off if he'd decided to simply sprint instead (Not that the knee high snow would have allowed that or anything, but still).

It looked as though all the energy had been drained from Sans' bones as he leaned his forehead against a frozen tree, shaking like he might fall apart at any moment. The hand clinging onto your wrist was beginning to cut off the blood circulation to your fingers, making you wonder if Sans had forgotten that it was even there. After appearing so confident and laid back all the time (as well as- dare you say it- a little bit heroic when he swooped in to save you from that murderous canine), you couldn't help but feel he looked completely and utterly _pathetic_ as he was forced to hug an icicle-covered tree just to keep himself upright.

"How much do you weigh?"

"aw, c'mon bud, th-that's a bit ha _aaAArsh-!_ "

It turned out that Sans wasn't actually that heavy at all. Could've been because he was a skeleton, could've been because magic was just rule-less bullshit in some universes- who cared. You adjusted the wheezing monster on your shoulder a bit as you began to trudge your way through the undisturbed snow. Sans may have been exhausted from whatever magic tricks he'd pulled, but you certainly weren't. If escaping was what you were doing then the obvious thing to do was to pick him up like a spent child after a day in the park and start walking.

Admittedly, Sans didn't come to the same conclusion at first and began to wriggle and protest a bit- right before calming down completely and letting you carry him around like a bony sack of potatoes.

"heh, thanks pal," he mumbled from behind your head. Pretty soon he seemed to have fallen asleep and you were left to wander around through the mysterious winter wonderland with only yourself for company.

…

You honestly didn't know how long you had been walking for. Sans was still asleep over your shoulder, his breathing even as you trudged your way along through the snow.

After so much mindless wandering in complete silence, you suddenly found yourself questioning just what the hell you thought you were doing.

Why did you start to carry Sans? What was the point in trying to survive? Where the hell were you even going? When were you going to come to your senses? How had you even gotten into such a mess?

The Determined feeling in the back of your mind kept telling you that you were doing the right thing and that you should keep going. You weren't usually inclined to follow the directions of the unwanted little feeling, but something about your situation happened to align you with it anyway. You... almost couldn't remember the last time that had happened. Normally your Determination only existed to keep you alive, but now...

There were a lot of nasty things you were willing to do or say to keep the various Sans-es in the anti-void away from you, but abandoning the exhausted Sans over your shoulder seemed like a bit much after his recent stunt. It was weird to think that he had actually cared enough to put in the effort to save you from the wolf (even if you hadn't necessarily wanted saving). He didn't even have anything to gain from it. He could have run away. As far as your memory went, no one had ever done such a thing for you- let alone been successful. At the very least you could repay the misplaced effort by finding somewhere warm to toss him.

And boy did you hope to find that warm place soon because you were _freezing_! Areas where your skin met the night air were so cold that it was actually painful. Other spots simply felt numb, making you wonder if they had fallen off while you weren't looking. Your teeth started to chatter helplessly as you inevitably began to slow your pace. Even breathing became a shallow, dream-like process as your mind became foggy; your grip on reality beginning to slip and sway as you grew colder.

Perhaps you wouldn't need Mettaton's help to die after all. The below freezing temperature of the forest was doing a pretty good job of slowly killing you once again. There was no warm fur or cave around to stop it a second time. And yet, in some twisted way, dying by frostbite felt more satisfactory to you than being mauled would have.

Maybe it was because you felt like you were actually doing something- or at least trying to do something- by carrying Sans around. Your Determination certainly seemed to be content for once, more focussed on the idea of you pushing yourself through the snow than caring about if you could survive it like normal. Somehow you felt as though you were achieving something by just by moving forward, and if you happened to drop dead right there you knew for sure that you would at least be satisfied in knowing that you'd actually done your best for once in your pitiful existence.

With a delirious smile on your face, you took another shaky step forward and almost toppled over, huffing out a weak laugh as you somehow managed to right yourself. On your shoulder you heard more than felt Sans wake up from the sudden jostling. The sound of ice cracking and shifting accompanied his soft swearing as he tried to force it out of his frozen joints.

"shit," he hissed as he tried to bend his knees. You watched through drooping eyes as the ice between his joining bones reluctantly cracked into shards. "this is _not_ a good place for a nap. how the hell does everythin' here freeze so fast?"

"I d-don't-t kn-know!" you giggled strangely through chattering teeth as you mindlessly pushed yourself forward. You were really starting to feel weird.

"h-hey, you, uh-? shit... here, let me down."

His sudden wriggling nearly overbalanced you as you weakly tried to keep him in your grip. No, no, no. You wouldn't let him down. If you dropped the guy then you would surely fall face-first into the snow and not get up. You could make it a little farther. J-just a bit… more…

You fell to your knees helplessly as Sans' feet finally managed to hit the ground. Any Determined energy that remained within you instantly fled once you lost your reason to walk, and you found yourself unable to move from sheer weakness. As you collapsed bonelessly into the snow, Sans panicked and immediately tried to hold you upright again.

"oh shit! oh _crap_! i forgot that you can't handle-" he hissed as he stared at the trail of deep footprints you'd left behind you, "what the hell? h-how long was i asleep? how far did you _walk_!?"

… You didn't know.

You didn't know how far you'd walked, or how long. You didn't know _why_ you had walked at all. You didn't know what you were doing, had been doing, or what you were supposed to do next. You didn't even truly know what had been motivating you in the first place- all of your feelings and thoughts suddenly becoming foreign and unintelligible to you when you tried to examine them.

You didn't know what was going on with yourself, but you did know one thing for sure: all of your new thoughts and feelings had only manifested after meeting the new Sans.

Very suddenly, something warm bloomed inside of you. Being an emotion, it did nothing for your frostbitten body; however, you could at least recognize it...

 _Anger._

"Sh-sh-shut-t up-p!" you hissed venomously as you stared into Sans' shocked eye-sockets, "W-why d-d-don-n't you j-just _f-fuck_ _off-f already!?_ "

For a moment Sans seemed almost hurt, looking at you with sadness and vague worry. However, he didn't remain that way for long.

Shaking his head and recovering from your harsh words, the skeleton continued to try and support you, "i cant leave you when the cold's killin' ya. you're not even thinkin' straight-"

"Sss-shut _up_!" you yelled, voice cracking as you swung your fists at his head. Your flailing was so weak that Sans barely even had to move to avoid your terrible punches, and anything that _did_ hit was so shaky that you might as well have been throwing feathers at him. "Wh-why d-d-do you c-care? W-why d-did-d you s-save me? What-t is w- _wrong_ with y-you? M-moron! Id-diot! S-s-stupid f-fucking-!"

Your anger-fueled movements quickly died out, however, as you predictably ran out of energy. That didn't stop you from feeling mad though.

"Wh-what t-the hell _are-re_ y-you?"

You had met every kind of Sans under the sun, moon or other alternate space sphere. There was no subset that you couldn't name. And yet, faced with the bewildered skeleton before you, you couldn't help but feel frustrated. No other Sans had gone so far out of their way to help you- and even the ones that _did_ either had something to gain from it or were foolish enough to get themselves killed before it could really affect you. But you couldn't tell what _this_ Sans was supposed to be. You didn't understand what motivated him. You couldn't tell if he had ulterior motives. You didn't know how he was so easily making you do things you normally wouldn't do for anyone anymore. All you knew was that you were angry and confused and _cold_. So very, very cold.

You must have muttered the last part aloud as you could distantly feel Sans' grip tighten in worry before he started pulling at you again. Grunting, he somehow hefted you upright, though it wasn't as fluid as when he'd rescued you since your limbs had somehow become both frozen and jelly-like at the same time.

"'m sorry, 'm sorry" he muttered soothingly under his breath, "i shouldn't 've used up all my magic like that and… yeah, that was pretty stupid. 's gonna be alright. we're gonna go somewhere warm together, ok? you don't have to like it, but i'm not givin' up on ya just yet."

You shivered as you were shuffled up onto the skeleton's back, feet still trailing on the ground as he tried to carry you like you'd carried him. Unfortunately you weighed a lot more than a simple skeleton, and Sans' knees were buckling under the weight that he was nowhere near fit enough to lift.

Despite the strain, he continued to shuffle forward and- while peering through partially closed eyes over his shoulder- you saw the air shift just in front of you like some sort of heat mirage.

As Sans slowly made his way to the shifting spot, a loud howl caused him to spin in panic.

"I'm FINding yOu, Sa _ns_! DIE FOR ME!"

The air was knocked out of your lungs as you were tackled from behind. You slipped off of Sans' back as he stumbled forward through the snow from the impact and… disappeared somehow. You had to blink a couple of times in confusion when you realised that you were laid out in the snow all by yourself with no skeletons in sight.

Well then. Maybe you'd just imagined he was there the whole time? Your mind was certainly becoming numb enough to believe it.

"SAAans! Co _war_ dS! Whe _ee_ RE _is_ you now!? 돌아와! 내가 당신을 죽일거야!" a furious and distorted voice growled from above you.

You couldn't muster the strength to turn and look properly, but from the corner of your eye you spotted Mettaton stalking around the area where Sans had disappeared into thin air. Snarling and snapping, the creature turned its wild eyes upon you, as though sensing your gaze.

'Wolf' didn't really do the thing justice anymore, from where you lay helplessly in the snow you could see that it had become far more akin to a beast. Fur sticking up, haunched raised, translator sparking, drool and foam gushing viciously from behind bared teeth- The once smug and graceful animal looked more crazed and rabid than you'd ever thought possible. If you'd had the energy you might have even tried to escape as a sudden surge of fear took you over. You were frozen (in more ways than one) as Mettaton stalked nearer, watching as flecks of drool cascaded into the snow on his approach.

With a snap of its jaws and a terrifyingly deep growl, the creature lunged at you.

… Only to bury itself up to its torso in the snow as you were suddenly yanked out of the way.

You stared dizzily at the deep blue heart that had appeared over your chest as you floated around and behind one of the forest's many frozen trees. Slowly you were lowered to the ground again as Sans directed your Soul to place you in front of him, carefully holding onto your shoulder to ease your descent. You couldn't even pay attention to the fact that he was actually real and hiding merely a few feet from the wolf he had just saved you from a second time; you were too busy staring at the limp blue strings hanging off of your exposed Soul.

As Mettaton ripped his head out from the ground and howled in anger, you felt your hatred for Error bubble up again.

While Sans desperately looked around for an escape route, you reached an ice-covered hand out for the blue threads that dared to touch the culmination of your being.

When the enraged wolf sniffed you out and threw itself growling and spitting around the tree to kill you both, you yanked on the magic with all the energy you could muster.

Even as Sans grabbed you in fear of the snarling death that was descending upon you, you threw all of your effort into destroying those damned. Blue. _Strings!_

A violent hiss of static and all-consuming white welcomed you back to the anti-void. You had to blink rapidly before you realised that you hadn't simply whited out.

The ice that had gathered on you in the other world still clung to your skin and clothes, though the deathly cold instantly abated, allowing you to think a bit more clearly.

Still gripping onto your jacket like it was the only thing anchoring him to reality, Sans made a choked sound of relief. A relief that was short lived once he looked up and saw that Mettaton had somehow been transported into the anti-void with you.

For a moment the creature stared at you- and you at it- until he looked around in confusion. The three of you were floating weightlessly in the anti-void, your strings once again visible and stretching off into all directions. Looking down, something in Mettaton's head seemed to click.

With a startled whimper the wolf suddenly plummeted straight through the anti-void. Further and further he fell, until he was nothing more than a shimmering purple dot in the distance. It seemed that, because he hadn't seen any solid ground beneath him, the wolf had immediately assumed that he was going to fall. Of course the anti-void immediately obliged his instincts, speedily carrying him in the direction he'd imagined to be 'downwards'. He would probably end up falling for a long, _long_ time before he figured out what was going on.

"oh." Sans muttered quietly from behind you as he stared at the point where Mettaton had disappeared into the distance, "well, ok then."

...

"'OK'?" you repeated lowly, and Sans turned to look at your frowning face over your shoulder, "' _OK_ '? How is this 'OK'!? We're _right back where we started!_ "


	12. public static void main() new String

I meant to upload this yesterday but the wifi I was using suddenly dropped out and didn't come back :( Basically, due to the last Chapter being so short and the fact that I haven't been able to post in a while, I'm posting this now when I have the chance!

If you're reading this before checking out the previous chapter then please be sure to catch up on it. I know it's short, but the last Chapter is actually pretty important!

...

...

...

* * *

You fumed as you brushed loose snow off of your body. The anger that filled you was magma hot, but somehow not hot enough to evaporate the clinging ice that had traveled with you to the anti-void. The damned stuff was stuck fast to you in some areas; peeling your skin and clumping all through your clothes as you tried to rip it off. Angrily tearing off another chunk of ice, you grumbled under your breath and tossed it carelessly through the anti-void where it gently plinked off of Sans' skull and floated away.

The uncomfortable skeleton floated a slight distance away from you, shooting concerned and nervous glances your way whenever he thought you were distracted enough. He hadn't said a word after you'd verbally torn him to pieces, pointing out how the entire pointless stint you had somehow survived had been entirely _his fault_. Stupid skeleton. Stupid escape plan! At the very least he'd accepted his blame in the matter, only mumbling a small "ok" when you told him to piss off while you dealt with all the excess snow.

God damnit, and there was so much of it too! If only you could remember what heat felt like. You didn't know if the anti-void could replicate temperatures, but it would have been _sooooo_ much easier to melt the stuff rather than trying to physically tear the frozen mess out of your clothes. It was no wonder your mind had been so messed up and fuzzy while in that snowy world; you were pretty thoroughly coated in the cold bullshit. Honestly, you should have frozen to death back in that place, not somehow re-trapped yourself in your least favourite jail.

"Ugh, this stuff's never gonna come out now!" you hissed angrily as you realised some of the now un-meltable snow was embedded within the threads of your coat. "Damnit! This was the only good thing I had and now it's gonna be stiff and uncomfortable forever!"

"i, uh-"

"SHUT UP!"

Your interruption was immediate. The whole time you'd been cleaning yourself up you had also been trying to predict when Sans would try to speak up again. Really you were just waiting for another chance to chew him out. You honestly couldn't remember the last time you had felt so much anger, and Sans was just an easy outlet.

Fortunately for him (but a bit unfortunately for you), the ashamed monster decided to keep quiet and return to picking ice out of his joints. You huffed at him and went back to pawing at your coat. Crap. You didn't want to think of how Error would react when he saw you both. You would probably survive to feel the full force of his punishment, but Sans wouldn't. Lucky bastard. You were so, _so_ scared. So scared in fact, that your fear was boiling inside you and manifesting into blame and anger.

It was all Sans' fault. All his stupid, unidentifiable, bony little fault.

He made you so mad you could _cry_.

And so, with that disgusting realisation in mind, you finally decided you'd had enough.

"Screw this. I'm out."

Sans jolted in surprise as you suddenly began to fall away from him. The anti-void helpfully carried you in the opposite direction Mettaton had fallen as you grumbled and shut your tired eyes. You had experienced too much nonsense for one day- or, in your case, 'waking period', as the anti-void had no day or night cycle. Your head was absolutely pounding from all the new sensations you had experienced. Touch, sight, and sound were all something you were at least a little familiar with, but on such a scale and with the addition of smells so strong you could practically taste them… that crisp, forested world had really done a number on you.

Add on top of that all the twisting emotions that you didn't want bubbling and burning inside of you and your poor mind had been stretched well beyond capacity. You needed to shut down for a while.

Unfortunately, the sound of quickly approaching shouting was really putting a damper on that plan. You tried to manipulate the false gravity to move you faster, but somehow you still couldn't get away. As Sans managed to catch up with you, you stubbornly kept your eyes closed, crossing your arms and curling in on yourself to keep him away.

"please! i said i was sorry!" Sans begged as he lightly tugged on your folded arms, "ya can't give up now! it was just one mistake!"

" _Sans_ ," you growled dangerously before deflating and sighing in exhaustion, "I'm too _tired_ for this. If you want to go save your world you can do it yourself. You don't need to involve _me_."

You couldn't see his reaction to your quiet words past your eyelids, but you did hear Sans shift as he gripped onto both your arms gently yet firmly. His fingers flexed there, as if he was considering his next words carefully.

"i… 'm sorry i left ya behind," he finally spoke, almost in a whisper, "didn't know you'd take it so hard… i mean, i thought that wolf mettaton was actin' so much like how error was. guess i kinda thought usin' your method would work on him. guess i didn't think that he might just grab ya like that and run."

"... My method?" you questioned, opening one of your eyes a fraction. Sans' face was a reasonable distance from yours, not too close to be uncomfortable and not too far to be impersonal. He had a sad look to his smile as he stared at you, head tilted down slightly from some other emotion you couldn't read.

"yeah, that method you used. y'know, where you pretended you were all aloof and stuff when error was gonna kill me so he ended up lettin' me go and, uh… um..." Sans' smile became increasingly strained as he watched you avert your eyes from him, "y-you, heh, didn't actually… mean to do that… did you?"

Shame started to creep over you as Sans slowly realised that you hadn't meant to save his life back then at all. That face he'd pulled… he copied it… from you? Had you really looked so... so...

You quickly squashed the ashamed feelings down as best you could, refusing to feel bad about your actions. Feeling shame meant that his opinion meant something to you, which it didn't. _He_ was the one who made a mistake by assuming that you had wanted to save him.

"I… didn't do that for you," you muttered, the words still tasting disgustingly bitter despite how you willed them not to, "I only do what's easiest for me, and I don't need you around. Even if you live or die, you won't be around much longer. Can't you just let me rest?"

Furrowing his non-existent brows, Sans merely increased his grip on your arms.

"well, maybe you didn't do _that_ one on purpose, but there's still the whole thing that happened with that… _thing_. y'know, the _fresh_ one. ya didn't have to protect me from him, but ya did."

"That's different, Fresh is a dick." You growled angrily at the memory, still bitter about how your triumph had transformed into torture thanks to the insufferable neon prick.

"yeah? and how about agreein' to help me? or tryin' to rescue me when we hit that static junk?"

Frowning, you looked the skeleton in the eyes again as you responded, "First, you're forgetting how you bugged me super hard before I finally snapped and agreed just to shut you up. Second… I- I was gonna let you go! But you- you grabbed my hand and-!"

"oh yeah?" Sans raised his eyebrows, his smile becoming more teasing, "then how 'bout when you fought off mr big, _badly_ wolf back there with an icicle? what was that about? i mean, i get givin' someone the _cold shoulder_ , but that was a lil more intense than that."

"I- He-!"

"was gonna kill you? i think you made it pretty clear you're not afraid of dyin'. i mean, unless you're insanely good at bluffin'. otherwise the only reason for all that stuff was that you were tryn' ta rescue me."

"That's not..."

"you also carried me a fair ways on your back after i used too much magic. oh, and you tried to save me the trouble of sufferin' for ages in this anti-void place before we knew a way out. i mean, you coulda been nicer about it, but still, all those lines you were sayin' were definitely well practiced. you knew exactly what you were doin' and 50G says you've done it plenty times before."

"..."

"point is," Sans sighed, gently patting your arms, "there's a good person worth savin' under all your crap. at the very least i owe ya for the mess i caused when error started flingin' ya around. if i hadn't yelled and struggled so much when he was hurtin' you… look, i can _help_ you. i know you don't wanna believe it, or maybe you just _can't_ believe it, but after all the things i've seen ya go through in just a short period of time, you _deserve_ to be safe."

You stared wide-eyed at the softly smiling skeleton. It was unbelievable, how he'd just gone ahead and laid such sensitive things so bare and out in the open like that. Where the hell was he even getting his insane deductions from?! You wanted to argue with him, to say he was wrong, but even you didn't understand what had motivated you to pull some of your more recent stunts. You couldn't even lie about how you'd purposefully antagonised him to save him from the slow agony that was the anti-void; he would probably just call you out on it. His analysis left you speechless and horribly uncomfortable, as if he'd just revealed that he'd read your personal diary. The sudden hit of emotional vulnerability you recieved was exactly the reason you'd wanted him to leave you alone in the first place.

Presented with a situation like this, there was really only one way you could respond;

" _Ugh_. Can't you see I'm already covered in snow? I don't need your _sap_ on top of it!"

Sans laughed heartily at your bitter quip, his whole body shaking with mirth before he winked at you, "pfft, nah. personally, i don't think you need it anyway. i recon if we peeled away that tough shell o' yours, we'd find out that you're already pretty _sweet_."

You immediately swatted at the chuckling skeleton, agitated by both his meaning and the pun. You weren't _sweet_. You were an irredeemable prick and he knew it!

"Just-! Go away!" you growled at him, "You don't 'owe' me anything. Except maybe some peace and quiet!"

"aw, c'mon bud, don't do that to yourself. we know a way out now! ya don't have to punish yourself by stayin' here."

"I'm not punishing myself! I just want to sleep! And going to crazy worlds like freeze-you-in-an-instant land back there isn't going to help with that!"

"but maybe a different world could!" Sans suggested eagerly, giving you a hopeful smile, "maybe if we follow those strings again we could find a world with people who'll help us! i could get my hands on some tools to stop error from catching up and _you_ could find a big, comfy bed to sleep in. doesn't that sound good?"

"Or we could end up in a reality even worse than the last one and die instantly," you hissed. God, you were so sick of this skeleton's taunting! Just _why_? _Why_ was he doing this to you? Why was he saying such things, even though they might never happen? Did he take joy from teasing you with empty promises of freedom and safety?

"no, no. don't think like that," Sans shook his head as he switched from grasping your arms to squeezing your shoulders, "c'mon. what happened to at least tryin' 'cause ya "got nothin' to lose"? we might not have found that soul place you were talkin' about, but now we know escape's not impossible! why would ya wanna give up _now_? at the very least, you want those strings off, right?"

You frowned as you looked down at your chest. He was right about the last point at least. Even if you weren't hidden in another world, Error's strings still bit into your Soul pretty painfully. You'd wanted them off so _badly_ in that frozen reality. If only they had snapped like you wanted instead of helping to pull you back into the white hell you'd spent most of your life in. Even with your Soul tucked away in your chest, seeing those blue threads trailing limply from your body was both annoying and terrifying. As long as they were there you could be certain that 'safety' would remain a mere concept.

You wanted the strings gone, you wanted to be safe- But you didn't want to have Sans think he was right about you, or that you actually wanted to believe that things could work out despite the odds.

"Nng… Arrgh-!"

The skeleton holding your shoulders only smiled at you as you growled and grumbled in dissatisfaction. Your inner conflict was so childish it disgusted you.

On one hand you could remain in the anti-void, but despite how tired you were you knew deep in your heart that you'd only be doing it because of your unwillingness to face the potential risk of emotions if you _actually_ put your full effort into escaping. On the other hand, agreeing to continue working on Sans' plan was like giving in somehow- a concept that almost seemed as bad as just giving up on escape completely and just going back to sleep.

Still, it was obvious which choice made more logical sense, and the almost smug look on the skeleton's face told you that even if you were acting angry, he already knew he had won you over.

"Gah! God! _Fine_! You'd only keep annoying me if I refused anyway!" you snarled, finally deciding to rip his stupid, comforting hands off of your shoulders. "What is _with_ you anyway? You're so-!"

"so…?" Sans repeated, shooting you a curious and amused look.

"So… _weird_! You're just- just _weird_! I don't even really- I mean, look at you!" You gestured angrily at the monster as though the action itself would prove just how odd he was. Being unable to pinpoint what made the one Sans in front of you so different was frustrating. He looked like a Classic- even acted like one to a certain extent- but he had other quirks too. He could get passionate and angry about stuff like a Fell, only without the needless violence; he had a little bit of the optimistic view of a Swap, but minus a decent chunk of naivete; and he was even a bit manipulative in the way that some G's were, though he was very obviously _not_ a G type.

You knew you had previously decided to try and push aside your curiosity about Sans' subset, but if you didn't figure it out soon it was going to drive you crazy! Not knowing exactly what he was made him unpredictable, which inevitably meant he could constantly catch you off guard with his _weirdness_.

"oh, whoops?" Sans shrugged nonchalantly, "sorry, but i've kinda always been like this, pal."

"Yeah, I figured," you huffed, annoyed with the fact that even if you were to ask him about his true subset, the smiling monster wouldn't even know how to answer you. Damn that semi-anomalous bastard!

Silence fell between the two of you as you stared at each other. You barely even noticed that you'd stopped 'falling' sometime during your conversation, too fixated on what the hell your next move should be. The strings floated silently around you, no longer moving or flowing as you both remained perfectly still.

After a while Sans couldn't seem to take your glaring anymore and faked a cough; "ahem… sooooo, uh… you wanna maybe get outta-?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Rolling your eyes, you grabbed the awkwardly smiling skeleton by the arm and turned back to the strings floating around you. A good deal of them seemed to trail back in the direction you had come from, but at least two of them led 'forward' through the endless white. Hesitantly, you grabbed the length of string that was closest to you. The string itself seemed to be anchored somewhere inside of Sans' body, but not yours. You had no idea where the other end was, as each thread seemed to stretch out into infinity.

"You're gonna regret this when we end up in some messed up world where oxygen is replaced with liquid nitrogen or something stupid," you grumbled as you began to follow the blue thread. Again, Sans only shrugged at your pessimistic tone, lazily allowing you to drag him through the anti-void as you carefully brushed your hand along the magical string.

For a while it seemed as though nothing was going to happen. The two of you simply floated in silence; you trying to focus your weaning energy on following the thread, and Sans likely thinking… whatever it was he was thinking. Perhaps he was silently celebrating his victory over you, who knew. You sure didn't, as you were feeling too childishly angry to look down at him again.

Just as you were about to give up and call the first interdimensional travelling incident a fluke, white static buzzed over your hand. It was incredibly annoying to know that during the countless times you had been strung up by that irredeemable psychopath named Error, escape had been quite literally at your fingertips. Then again, how could you have possibly known that gliding your hand over the threads was all you'd ever needed to do to achieve freedom? You hadn't even reached the end of the string you were following before you hit an invisible wavering point- that is, if Error's strings even _had_ an end. The warped space seemed to appear randomly along its midsection as the rest of the magical thread seemed to flicker erratically and fade away into the distance once you encountered it.

You pursed your lips in irritation as the hissing, near-invisible matter began to creep up your body. It seemed too easy; the whole 'escaping' thing. You may have softened up enough to agree to go along with Sans for the meantime, but something was bound to go wrong eventually, you could just _feel_ it. As the static engulfed your head and began to pull Sans in after you, you hoped that at the very least you could handle a second round of sensory overload better than you had the first time. You didn't want to look that pathetic in front of anyone ever again.

Crisp, cold air greeted you as the angry whines of the strange, inter-dimensional static spat you out into a new world. The first thing you noticed was how the air smelled strongly of dirt and earth, with an undertone of aging pine. The second thing you noticed was that the blue strings hanging from your torso had become invisible, and to your shallow relief could no longer feel their presence. The third thing you noticed was that you had landed in _more fucking snow god damnit!_

The fourth thing you noticed was Sans falling on top of you like the useless, flailing sack of bones that he was.

" _oof_! whoops. heh. sorry 'bout that, pal."

"Just get _off_!"

Irritated beyond belief, you quickly shoved the skeleton away from you and watched with some satisfaction as he fell face first into the snow. Wobbling a little bit due to the new world's sudden assault on your senses, you carefully made your way to your feet and stood up.

The area around you was dim, as though you were standing in the shadow of something giant. Though a thin mist twisted lazily over the snow, the area was nowhere near as cold as the previous world had been. The snow around you was only ankle deep at best and the towering trees were ice free; their bark thick, dry and mercifully musky, meaning they weren't as horribly sweet smelling as the last forest you'd encountered. There were no stars shining down either; instead the treetops disappeared into a thick darkness high above you. You felt a bit more comfortable about the new area you'd entered, mostly because you weren't being exposed to too much at once. The darkness and mist made the world seem mercifully less expansive than the last one had been.

Still, no matter the fact that the world you'd landed in wasn't immediately terrible, you were still pissy about Sans making you seek it out with him. Obviously there was no way you could let the opportunity for a snarky comment pass you by. You had to let your displeasure be known at every possible opportunity.

"Well, I'm not exactly seeing any of those warm, comfy beds you were on about," you dryly remarked as you watched the monster try to empty clumps of snow out of his skull. Of course, he didn't really seem to care about your comment, too focussed on the lump of frozen water lodged in his left eye socket. Eh, it wasn't really your best quip anyway. Despite the new location, exhaustion was slowly taking you over, making you slower than ever. It hadn't been a lie when you had claimed you were tired. You desperately hoped that you would have a chance for a nap within the new world, considering that Sans had caught up on his own sleep in the last reality you'd stumbled through.

 _Splat!_

"oh, hey, this is kinda familiar…"

You grunted in question as Sans wiped the last of the snow from his face and stood beside you. He seemed to be examining the dark forest around you with a critical eye, as though he was looking for something. Very suddenly, like a light switch being flicked on, his sockets widened in some sort of realisation and his smile stretched wide.

"oh! yeah, yeah! this _is_ familiar! i know where we are! i been through here 'least a hundred times!"

Grinning victoriously he hurried forward- though not without doubling back and dragging your reluctant, grumbling ass along behind him. He set a surprisingly quick shuffle through the dirty snow, passing by the identical trees with the confidence of someone who'd done it many, many times before. You were almost ready to ask him where he was going, or where he thought you were, when he came to a sudden stop.

"heh, knew it," he smiled brightly.

Before you was a large ravine which cut sharply through the middle of the forest. The trees around you dared to crawl all the way up to the edge of the sudden drop, almost completely masking the fact that it was there. Leaning forward revealed that if there was a bottom to the ravine, it was far beyond your human eyesight. The stone and dirt walls were masked by a thick darkness about three meters down, making it impossible to judge just how far it went. If you'd been wandering about on your own you might've risked tumbling down into the deep chasm due to how suddenly it appeared across the landscape.

Next to you, Sans was smiling and looking at you expectantly. It was as though he was waiting for your opinion on his discovery. Well, you supposed you'd give it to him if he wanted it so badly.

"... This is a hole." you observed and Sans nodded.

"it's a hole." he confirmed.

"..."

A beat of silence passed between you before Sans finally raised an eyebrow at you.

"uh, don't you have anythin' else ta say 'bout this? maybe an insult for me?"

You scrunched your nose up at the suggestion. Did he really think your brand of bitter wit was so effortless? It took time and energy to come up with effective, properly insulting remarks! Energy that _you_ no longer had.

Reading your curled lip and exhausted eyes, Sans chuckled again, "heh, guess there really is a softie under that _cool exterior_." He flicked at your half-frozen coat for emphasis, smiling all the wider as you sneered harder at him.

"Keep that up and I'll push you off the edge of this thing."

"a'ight, point taken," he snickered, holding his free hand up in mock surrender, "was just checkin'."

Ignoring the opportunity to antagonize you further, Sans pulled you briskly along the edge of the ravine. You could have sworn he kept looking back at you with a gleeful glint in his eye, but you were too busy holding back multiple yawns and rubbing at your drooping eyelids to care. Honestly, you had half a mind to just stop right where you were and fall asleep on top of the guy. It would certainly even out the score of who had fallen asleep on top of whom; what with him having a tally of two from before Fresh's arrival and after Mettaton's betrayal, and you having a tally of one for when Error had left you strung up.

… Jeez, for the short time you had known each other, things had already gotten a bit too touchy for your liking.

"tada! here it is!"

As seemed to be the theme of the new world, the sight Sans had to show you was terribly mediocre. What stood before you was a simple wooden bridge which spanned the width of the ravine to connect two relatively boring paths in the snow. The only interesting thing you could see about it from your position in the forest was that it had a few large support beams set along it. At least, you thought they must've been support beams, since they reached far into the darkness both above and below you. Maybe whatever they were supporting was just too far away for you to see? If they were supposed to be bars or anything of the like then you'd have to call whoever set them up a complete idiot- Those things were _way_ too far apart to be effective.

"see? lookit how well this is goin'. bet you're glad you gave this stuff a second chance, huh?"

Sighing in irritation, you turned to the smugly grinning Sans and crossed your arms.

"Could you stop talking?" you asked, tired of whatever the hell he thought he was doing by continuing to interact with you, "Even if I knew what you were gloating about I'd still be too sleepy to care! If you want to impress me then you could just find us some shelter to rest in instead of pointing out boring landmarks."

"well- yeah, okay i guess…" Sans sighed, looking just the faintest bit disappointed, "i'm just tryin' ta say that i know where we are. this is the begginin' of the path between the ruins and snowdin! my bro and i would patrol it all the time before the barrier finally broke. well, i mean, he'd usually be the one patrollin' it. i mostly just napped over at my post or had a laugh by the door with this great lady i knew, heh. anyways, if we just follow this path we can get into town and get some supplies, a place to rest- whatever ya want basically!"

"Well… then you'd better do that. Or something…"

You stared at the ground as another yawn tried to slip out of you. Sans' sudden want to push as much enthusiasm onto you as possible might have been annoying, but your brain just wasn't functioning nearly well enough to counter his positivity with biting remarks. If anything it was getting harder to not put your usual hostile defenses on hold and just roll with whatever he wanted. When was the last time you'd slept in a real, physical bed? Just the thought of the experience becoming a real possibility for you made your heart soar. It was all you could do to continue holding up your pessimistic disbelief like a shield so you didn't accidentally start buying into Sans' words and begin begging him to hurry up like an impatient child. Even after everything you still had some pride left, damn it!

"alright! trust me, you'll be impressed. there's a bit of a path between here an' the town, but once i get the hang of this place again we can take a few shortcuts. i mean, i might not even need _that_ much of a refresher. 'practically know this place like the back of my haa _aa_ -ow, ow! what tha _hell_?"

You opened your previously closed eyes in surprise as Sans began to curse and struggle ahead of you. Being as tired as you were, you hadn't been paying the short skeleton any attention as he yammered on, before accidentally running head-first into what looked like silver strings.

At first you panicked. _Strings? Here? Shit, was it Error?_ \- But no, the silver threads were made out of metal, not magic. As the skeleton struggled with what was actually wires, you finally grasped what the full problem was.

It turned out that the large beams along the bridge were useful for something after all, as Sans had discovered by walking straight into the multiple layers of barbed wire delicately weaved between them. The thin threads of spiked metal appeared almost invisible thanks to the darkness and the distracting white of the surrounding downtrodden snow. It was actually a rather clever trap, if not a little conspicuous to anyone who was more observant than a distracted skeleton-monster and a half-asleep human.

"ow, ow, ow, _ah_!" Sans hissed as he finally freed himself from the clinging barbs. He spent a moment trying to pull his shirt and jacket back into place, shooting glares at the sharp points which had ripped a few stray threads out of his clothes, holding them out in his face as though taunting him with the proof of their trickery.

"Like the back of your haa _aaaa_ , huh?" you teased with a yawn.

"shut up. that wasn't supposed to- i mean, i, uh, forgot it was there." Sans grumbled, looking strangely nervous and embarrassed, "let's just take the faster way 'round."

Grabbing your wrist again, Sans took a step backwards, guiding you to do the same. There was a brief sensation of the air pressure around you wavering, but it quickly dissapeared as Sans turned around and set a quick pace away from the bridge.

"I thought we were going to town? Why are we moving in the wrong direction?" you asked, confused and a bit betrayed at the possibility that you wouldn't get to see a bed like you were promised.

"we are goin' to town. just had to work a different way 'round the bridge is all," Sans smirked, though it quickly dissapeared as he went back to staring at his surroundings. His mood seemed to have plummeted after encountering that little hiccup at the bridge. Something seemed to be troubling him.

Looking back, you were a bit startled to see that your footprints led all the way up from the forest to the bridge- though on the opposite side to the one you were now standing on. It was as if you'd somehow reached the wires, backed up, then suddenly ended up on the reverse side of the bridge to continue on your way. Had you just…?

"Did you just teleport us?" you asked, still staring behind you.

"wow. you really _don't_ pay attention to the stuff i say," Sans grinned halfheartedly before coming to a stop outside of some kind of wooden outpost.

"I barely even noticed. Smooth transition..." you mumbled, wiping at your tired eyes for the hundredth time. The skeleton you were being dragged after might have come off as pretty useless sometimes (okay, well, a lot of the time), but you at least had to admit that the powers he _did_ have were pretty neat. Some of the other Sans' versions of 'teleportation' could be a bit more messy- if they could even pull it off in the anti-void at all, that is. It was nice to not have to experience a lingering ozone-like smell, or feel yourself atomize as he transported you around. You made a vague mental note to try and quiz him on it later. His earlier ramblings about magic and voids and whatnot had been completely ignored by you the first time, but perhaps a second round would actually be worth listening to.

As you were wandering off with your half-formed train of thought, Sans was busy inspecting the wooden setup in front of you. It was a simple checkpoint with a snow-covered roof, a chest-high desk and a single stool around the backside. He quickly dissapeared behind the counter as you stared off into space, dazedly trying to make mental notes about things that you probably wouldn't act on in the future anyway. You only started to pay attention to the monster's rummaging when he began to pull out several bottles of different condiments.

"What's with you?" you asked as he stacked up around five bottles of mustard, one bottle of barbecue sauce and three bottles of ketchup, "I didn't know you'd be up for stealing other people's stuff."

"what? no! that's not what i'm doin'," he objected as he turned over yet another yellow bottle of sauce, "this is technically my stuff anyway. kinda. y'know... if ya think about it. i mean, in _my_ world it would be."

"What? Your world is dead."

The reminder only seemed to worsen the skeleton's mood as he stared at the stacked bottles with dim eyes. Suddenly seeming self-conscious, Sans placed the a final container of mustard down on the table, only grabbing a single ketchup bottle as he shuffled around to join you once more.

"you, uh, want this?" he asked as he raised the bottle in your direction.

"Uh, no."

"well, your loss i guess."

You leaned back a little as you stared at Sans suspiciously. He squirmed and began to sweat slightly under your gaze, fiddling with the red bottle as he thought deeply about… something.

"so, um, guess we'll just keep goin', huh? snowdin should be just up ahead so-"

"STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINALS!"

The loud scream that echoed through the woods just about startled you out of your skin with its suddenness. You weren't given even a moment to recover from it either, because before you knew it, _something_ had charged towards you and grabbed you by the collar.

The next thing you knew, you and Sans were both dangling a few feet off the ground by a very dark, very tall, very _pissed off_ skeleton.


	13. Path: UnderFellLauncherexeApp

This is my first time uploading from a phone, so sorry if the editing is off! Like how I can't seem to put a line break after this author's note... oops.

I hope you all enjoyed new years!

...

...

...

As you were dangled by the neck several feet off the ground, you only had one thought going through your mind: you were waaaay too tired for this.

The monster who was angrily shaking you seemed to be the same species as Sans- or race, or breed, or whatever title monsters used to differentiate and label each other. Anyway, he was really angry about something. The problem was that he was speaking so loud and fast while you were so dizzy and sleepy that none of what the skeleton was shouting made any sense. Seriously. He'd already been screaming at you for a solid three minutes.

You tried to concentrate for a moment and just barely caught a bit of what he was screaming at you.

"-THINKYOUCANJUSTCOMEHEREANDSTEALFROMTHISPOSTANDWALTZAWAYTHINKINGTHATIWOULDNTAPREHENDYOULIKETHEGOODFORNOTHINWORTHLESSTINYLITTLESPECKSTHATYOUMOSTCERTAINLYMUSTBESINCEMUSTARDISALREADYDISGUSTINGBUTKETCHUPISANEVENMOREDESPICABLECHOICEANDICANHARDLYFATHOMTHATANYONEWHOWASNTALREADYCOMPLETELYBRAINDEADWOULDACTUALLY-"

Nope. Still sounded like nonsense.

You continued to not pay much attention to the yelling as the tall monster shook you violently. You could almost hear Sans' bones knocking against each other like a living baby's rattle beside you. That would have been more amusing to you if your brain wasn't being scrambled inside your skull. Yet the enraged monster didn't seem to realise or care that you couldn't process a word he was saying, only gripping you harder and shaking you faster as he shrieked out the last of his fury in full force.

"-WHICHISUTTERLYDEPLORABLEBECAUSESUCHHABITSAREABLEMISHUPONALLOFSKELETALKINDANDSOYOUENDUPDISRESPECTINGMEBYPROXYINTHEWORSTANDMOSTDISGUSTINGWAYIMAGINABLE _ANDTHENTHINKIWILLLETYOUGETAWAYWITHIT!?_ "

Very suddenly the shaking stopped and you were left to dangle helplessly from the skeleton's long arms. After such rough handling you couldn't help but to let your head fall back uselessly. Your vision swam as you stared up at the inky darkness above you, your eyes practically rolling around in your face as gravity tried to set you straight. Honestly you'd felt far more intense g-forces on your body from all the times you'd been whipped through the anti-void, but that didn't mean you weren't still a bit put-out by the sudden shake-a-thon that had taken place.

"WELL?! WHAT DO YOU HOOLIGANS HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELVES?"

Head still lolled backwards, you didn't even bother to answer the angry screaming. Instead you squinted and tried to gain your bearings as Sans stuttered out some kind of excuse.

"y-you don't reconise me? but then why did the wolf…? n-nevermind. c'mon bro, i didn't-"

"'BRO'!?" the screaming began again, "JUST WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE CALLING 'BRO'!? I AM NO 'BRO' OF YOURS, YOU HOLLOW HALF-WIT!"

Again, you felt yourself being shaken about. The second round of rattling was rather brief however, and you found yourself with your head thrown forward by the end of it, granting much relief to your neck.

As you re-focussed your eyes you spied a red glove fisted harshly into your shirt to hold you up. Trailing upwards, you followed a length of ivory bone up to a padded shoulder, followed by a black leather bound torso with thick, handmade stitchings and torn red scarf. Of course, sitting above that was the glaring skull of an incredibly furious skeleton.

The monster holding you hostage in the air had a very lean structure, making his ability to hold both Sans and yourself high off the ground with a single hand each almost impressive. He was wearing some kind of uniform or costume which consisted entirely of dark cloths and (as you had already noticed) thick leather. His face was incredibly angular, what with the pointed teeth and severely jutting cheekbones. One of his eye sockets even had a scar-like crack running over it, stretched crookedly over a length of his skull and stopping just above his upper jaw. The only colour on the guy aside from his red gloves and boots were the matching deep red rings under his angry eyes. Oh, and his golden belt which had a silver buckle in the exact shape of his own face. Weirdo.

Honestly, with that kind of look, it would be more difficult for you to _not_ guess what kind of subset the guy was. In fact, due to some 'special cases' Error occasionally left you with in the anti-void, you had a pretty good idea what his Base was too. You'd never really seen this particular combination for yourself (considering your visitors had to meet certain specifications if they were to exist in _your_ neighbourhood), but if you put two and two together in your mind, the skeleton's appearance and behaviour made sense.

"I SWEAR, IF ONE MORE OF YOU TROUBLEMAKING TEENS DECIDES TO FOOL AROUND WITH THE EQUIPMENT OF THE ROYAL GUARD, _HEADS. WILL. FLY!_ I HAVE HALF A MIND TO MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF YOU TWO _RIGHT NOW_!"

"h-heh. y-you don't really wanna do that-"

"OH? AND WHY WOULDN'T I? FILTHY THIEVES LIKE YOURSELVES DESERVE TO BE PUNISHED!"

"th-there's gotta be a mistake! you're not supposed ta be like-"

"Just _take_ the stupid ketchup."

Both skeletons stopped and turned to you as you frowned harshly. The taller, angrier one scowled as he held you high, waiting for you to do something stupid enough to warrant snapping your neck. Sans on the other hand was sweating bullets. It seemed like the sudden encounter had confused him terribly- meaning he'd learned nothing from the incident with that Mettaton creature. This unique Sans was like a roulette wheel of intelligence; capable of analysing your most tender spots with a single glance, yet still ignorant enough to believe that every universe would make sense to him on contact.

"HMM? WHAT IS THIS? ARE YOU PERHAPS TRYING TO SQUIRM OUT OF YOUR CURRENT PREDICAMENT BY RETURNING THE STOLEN GOODS? NYA HA HA! TO THINK YOU WOULD BE SO FEARFUL WHEN I HAVEN'T EVEN DONE ANYTHING YET!"

Knowing that you weren't going to get anywhere by addressing the tall one, you instead turned to the monster hanging on your left and repeated yourself; "Give him the stupid bottle."

Confused, but not willing to question you, Sans carefully held out the red sauce to the much larger, much louder skeleton. Your captor simply stared at the bottle, somehow twisting his skull in a way that made him appear to be sneering at it.

"AND WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO WITH THAT DISGUSTING RED OOZE? CAN'T YOU SEE THAT MY HANDS ARE CURRENTLY FULL?"

"well i'd put it on your head in that case, but your arms are kinda longer than mine…"

As if to illustrate his point, Sans waved around his outstretched arm, bringing attention to the fact that while he was being held aloft by the tall skeleton's outrageously long limbs he could barely reach even halfway to the other's head.

"YOU FOOL! I DO NOT WANT A BOTTLE OF KETCHUP ON MY HEAD! I WANT RETRIBUTION FOR YOUR MISDEEDS!"

"uh…" Sans paused as sent you a glance. Unfortunately, even if you had been wide awake and un-rattled, you would not have had any advice for the guy. Some skeletons just weren't even worth dealing with in your book; and tall, dark and haughty in front of you was practically the first entry on the first page.

Seeing that you weren't going to be of any help, Sans suddenly sighed and fell back into an easy smile. Both you and the other skeleton stared in confusion as he seemed to push away all of his nerves and fall into some sort of default state.

"hey, retribution is fine and all, but can't we talk this out a lil more?" he closed his eyes calmly, before opening one in a wink, "it's good to _ketchup_ every now an' again."

Dead silence fell over the area as you stared in disbelief.

Really?

A pun?

 _Now_?

But of _course_ Sans' neutral response to anything would be a lame joke. About a condiment no less. For a moment there you'd thought that his sudden calm meant he'd come up with an actual _plan_ or something. It was so typical that you couldn't help but groan.

Your moment of disgust was broken, however, as you heard the very distant sound of a siren going off.

Blinking, you turned to try and find the source. To your surprise the 'siren' you were hearing was actually the sound of steam building in the other monster's skull.

Still holding you effortlessly in the air, the dark monster's face began to burn completely red. The gloved hand holding you up started to shake as his eye sockets squeezed shut, building on the pressure inside even more. As you watched in morbid fascination, the screeching whistle of the skeleton's building anger rose to a peak and he dropped the both of you straight onto your butts. Literal smoke came streaming from his head as he seemed to almost collapse in on himself like a whistling, burning, leather-bound red sun ready to go supernova.

Staring in concern beside you, Sans chose to foolishly interrupt the other skeleton's impending implosion with a weak "you alright, br-"

" _ **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH**_!"

Filled to the brim with rage, the fuming monster screamed at an ear-piercing volume and summoned a bright red bone.

A sickening crack echoed through the forest as Sans was struck dead in the centre of his skull. For a fraction of a second his smile fell into a painfully straight line, his head forced into his shoulders as all the power behind the strike travelled down his spine and into the hard, unforgiving ground. The lights in his eyes immediately blinked out, leaving only shocked and gaping black holes in their wake. If anyone ever asked you, you'd be ashamed to admit you let out a shocked yelp when the hit connected. You just couldn't hold it as you helplessly watched Sans slump forward into the snow like a ragdoll.

Your heart seemed to both jam itself in your throat and stop completely as you stared numbly at the collapsed skeleton. To think that after everything he'd said and done, your weird little Classic had just gone ahead and _died_. Even though you had repeatedly told yourself it would eventually happen, it was still unbelievable- And not just because he was killed over a fucking _pun_ of all things. It just… It almost seemed too soon… or maybe even too late considering all the other ridiculous shit you'd already survived in such a short time of knowing each other. But suddenly, with one single hit from a screaming lunatic dressed in leather, it was all over. Sans was fucking _dead_.

Or at least that was what you had thought.

You sat in the snow, holding your breath and anticipating the moment where the struck skeleton's bones would inevitably dissolve and scatter into dust.

However… nothing happened.

What…? Why…? _How…?_

Looking at him closely, you eventually spotted signs that Sans was still alive and breathing. He was just… knocked out. Somehow.

A hundred different reasons shot through your head as to how and why Sans could have possibly survived the hit. Did intention not transfer directly through strikes where Sans was from? Did monster HP in his world follow different rules? You remembered something about bone marrow being a thing in some universes. Was bone marrow a thing for him? Did he have to 'bleed' before he died? What about cracks? Had his bones cracked at all? Was that something that could happen to him? _What was going on_?!

No matter how many possibilities your mind conjured up, you were still left shocked and speechless as Sans lay inexplicably alive- totally unconscious, yeah, but still living and in one piece- on the ground. _How in the hell…?_

"-TINY, DESPICABLE, MOUTHY, ANNOYING, HALF-BRAINED, BUMBLING, EMPTY-HEADED, IRREDEEMABLE _BUFFOON_!"

You tore your gaze away from the monster laid out on the ground for a second to blankly stare at the one ranting and rampaging with his back to you. You hadn't even noticed that he was on some kind of angry tirade, Sans' limp body having so thoroughly distracted you. The taller skeleton seemed completely unfazed about how he'd just smacked the poor guy unconscious with a single swing of his temporary weapon, seemingly far too busy screaming his frustration into the open air to notice.

Very suddenly, the loud monster turned back to you, eyes crackling loudly with magical red embers.

"YOU TWO," he yelled, pointing an accusatory finger down at your paralysed form and Sans' unconscious one, "ARE GOING TO JAIL! NO PIT STOPS, NO GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARDS, DO NOT PASS GO! DO _NOT_ COLLECT TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS!"

You would have liked to say that you responded to that crazy statement, but at the time you couldn't manage anything more than a confused croak. The guy was screaming at you, you were exhausted beyond belief, and for a split second there you had thought your Sans was going to die in front of you. If you had managed a snarky quip it would have been a pretty impressive feat. As it was, no one could blame you for being shocked into complete silence.

Still grumbling, the dark skeleton picked both you and the limp monster off of the ground, tucking each of you under a thin arm as he marched angrily down the forested path. You didn't even register the fact that you were being carried in the same direction Sans had already been leading you, you were just that out of it. Dangling uselessly behind the tall monster's back, you couldn't help but stare at Sans' shocked and unconscious face.

How the _hell_ was he still alive?

It had been a few hours since you'd been hauled into the tall skeleton's garage and tossed behind more of the same barbed wire fencing. Even though you swifty procured the tiny dog bed in the corner of the cage for yourself, sleep didn't come as easily to you as you would have liked. You were just too distracted.

Every couple of minutes or so you would wake up for no reason, only to stare at Sans' unconscious body before falling under again. It was infuriating how much his survival was plaguing your mind, but you just couldn't help the curiosity that was twisting inside of you.

The skeleton hadn't roused even once since you'd been imprisoned. He lay face down on the wood floorboards, ass stuck gracefully in the air as his limbs lay sprawled around him, exactly the way he'd first landed when your new captor had forcefully thrown you both in a huge arc over the tall, room-dividing wires that kept you trapped. You hadn't bothered to move him, despite the gnawing want you had developed to inspect his skull for any signs of damage. Instead you forced yourself to rest, pushing away all thoughts of the knocked out monster as you tried to follow his lead into dreamland.

Finally, during one of your many fitful naps, you snapped awake to the sound of groaning.

You bolted upright and watched as Sans twitched and rolled onto his back on the floor, blinking a little as his eyes slowly flickered back to life. Physically he didn't seem much worse for wear, but he was still acting kind of groggy. He rubbed at his head as though still feeling the effects of the other monster's attack as he began to scan the room with confused and squinting eyes. Even the smile that had fallen away when he was unconscious seemed to twitch back to life by instinct. Eventually his lights landed on you and he relaxed a little, though the look of confusion never left his features.

"... hey. what, uh… what just happened?"

You didn't respond to the greeting; you were far too busy being shocked about how the skeleton was alive and in one piece. Of all the possibilities you had conjured up to explain to yourself how the grinning monster was alive, none of them had ended up making any sense. You knew for certain that a direct strike to the skull would have killed any ordinary Sans, barring the ones who had gained significant LV or could push their single HP into decibel points. You just couldn't imagine your Sans having any LV though. And the decibel method was usually so painful for monsters that he should have woken up screaming and dusty if he was using it.

But regardless of why, the near-eternally smiling skeleton looked fine. Well, aside from how disorientated he seemed.

"um, i said hey? hello? are ya in there?"

"What…?"

Your words were almost a whisper as you blinked. Sans was still lying on his back on the floor, rubbing stray smudges of dirt off his face from his unexpected nap on the ground. He was staring at you in confusion, obviously waiting for you to answer his previous question. Honestly you'd already forgotten what it was.

"do you know what happened?" he repeated as you stared owlishly, "where are we? wait, isn't this…? i think i sorta… blacked out for a bit there. what tha heck...?"

"You were…" you began, but hesitated. Honestly, you were so confused about the monster's condition that you could barely string a sentence together. Why were you the one who had to explain things when Sans was the one being so confusing? _He_ should be explaining himself to _you_.

"You… got hit by a Fell..." you finally finished, your eyebrows furrowing even as you said the words, "You should have died from it."

Sans stared at you blankly for a minute as he continued to rub at his face. Then, very suddenly, his sockets widened and he dropped his hand to his side in realisation.

"oh _yeah_ , i remember now! gotta admit, that was _not_ the kinda reaction i was expectin'. my jokes are usually a _big hit_ , but that was a bit different from what i'm used to, heh heh!"

Sans' pun fell flat as you continued to stare at him completely dumbfounded. Sans was alive… After taking a hit from a Fell… And he was making jokes as though it wasn't that big of a deal…

Your brain was short circuiting.

Noticing your odd lack of response to his lame joke, Sans laughed nervously on the floor as he stared back at you.

"heh, sorry. guess that joke kinda _struck_ out, huh? … did i worry ya?"

You were almost taken aback by the naive accusation. Worried? You? You weren't…

"How are you even _alive_ right now?" Your words were quiet, almost as if you were saying them out of pure disbelief rather than meaning them as an actual question.

"guess he held back?" Sans responded with a shrug. His tone didn't carry any sort of teasing lit to it. In fact he seemed pretty genuine in his guess. But even if his suggestion was true, the slightest strike from literally _anyone_ , held back or not, should have dusted him instantly. Error's torture was the sole exception to that rule, but he'd had a lot of practice and didn't count.

"... Still doesn't make sense…" you mumbled, frowning at the floor as you tried to scrounge up any other explanations.

Across from you, Sans became completely silent. He seemed to just stare at you for a while in concern, studying your tired face as though there was something more there than bone-deep exhaustion. He seemed to come to some kind of conclusion as he finally grunted and sat himself up. The old floorboards creaked as he moved closer to you, taking in the layout of the shed as he went.

Sitting down as close to your side as he dared, Sans casually spoke up again, "So what _is_ a Fell anyway?"

You blinked twice slowly as you turned to look at the skeleton beside you. He was sitting cross-legged with his head resting in one hand, giving you his complete attention. Was… was he really asking you that? After the hit he'd taken? Shouldn't he be more worried about other, more important things? Like his head? Or how logic apparently no longer existed?

Taking your silence as a sign that you hadn't understood his question, Sans expanded on it; "y'know, uh… i think you mentioned it before? when you were goin' on about readers and bases and sub-stuff. didn't really get a lot of it at the time but- well, ya said that they were a subset that acted pretty rude all the time, right?"

"... Kinda," you replied, almost on automatic. "Fells are… A Fell is a subset, yes. It's used as a label for people from worlds where everyone is expected to murder anyone. Those kinds of people usually have really high LV and EXP…"

"you're kiddin," Sans paled somehow, eye lights shrinking, "shit. there're places like that?"

"It's multiverse theory you idiot. 'Course somewhere like here exists." You scoffed quietly, sneakily taking another peek at his skull as you rolled your eyes. It appeared undamaged… _somehow_.

"well, uh, g-good thing it was just paps then! woulda been pretty bad if we actually bumped into someone who'd kill people..."

You scrunched your nose in confusion at the statement, "What do you mean 'just paps'? What are you even talking about?"

Suddenly lighting up a little more, Sans responded with a genuine smile.

"oh! well, dun know if you knew this, but paps is my bro. he's pretty much the best. wouldn't hurt a fly even though he trains every day to get into the royal guard and-"

"Wait, wait, waaaait a second," you interrupted, raising a hand, "Are you comparing the guy who knocked you out with your brother from your own world? Just because they have the same Base doesn't mean that both of them will have the same personality! He's a _Fell_ for fuck's sake!"

"well yeah, he _was_ a bit more aggressive than usual… but he's still the same ol' pap." Sans shrugged, completely nonchalant about the fact that the other skeleton had attacked him. You couldn't help but be taken aback by his casual attitude.

"So… what? Does _your_ brother usually knock you out and lock you in a garage filled with barbed wire?"

"well, not _me_. but, y'know, the kid..." the skeleton across from you scratched his cheek as he averted his eyes, not expanding on his odd comment any further, "and hey, i guess the barbed wire's a bit of a surprise, but he's not _that_ different."

Yeah, sure. Not _that_ different. Not until the monster in question returned with armfuls of torture devices to prove just how _different_ a Fell-verse could be.

You rolled your eyes at Sans' distorted view, "You've gotta be kidding me. Just because he's your brother in your _own_ world doesn't mean that _this_ Papyrus won't tear you limb from limb. I don't get how you can constantly be so caught off guard by alternate realities, and yet when it comes to ridiculously small details you act so... _ugh_. Whatever."

Huffing, you crossed your arms. You had almost called Sans 'smart' for all the times he'd been able to effortlessly see through your bullshit. Or how he could pick up on minute details and weave them into fully formed plans. Or the way he was quick to adjust to new concepts like the functions of the anti-void. Or how he had been able to sway you into travelling with him despite your hatred for the faint, unidentifiable little feeling that was trying to gain a foothold inside of you because of his actions… But you refused to accidentally compliment that bastard! He would've gotten all smug and teasing about it if you let yourself slip. Ugh! And he probably would have made a lame joke too!

"... i didn't tell you his full name was papyrus."

"Hmm? Why's that important?" You asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sans was staring hard at your face, as though watching for tells as you blinked back at him. Normally you would have associated such a question with a much darker tone and the beginnings of an interrogation, but the peculiar Sans beside you simply seemed curious. Honestly, he should have already known that you knew pretty much everything about him thanks to your experiences in the anti-void. Well… you knew everything except how he could possibly survive direct magic attack to the skull. But aside from that you were practically a scholar of Sans-related knowledge, and Papyrus was certainly _Sans-related_.

… Oh damn, that was actually a pretty good one!

"'s just that i only call him 'paps' or 'bro', but you already knew his whole name. i guess you've already talked to other versions of me to learn 'bout that, huh? Not many other ways you coulda learned it." For some reason Sans had a hint of something shining in his eye as he smiled at you, "must be weird, talkin' to a buncha people who're actually all the same person, amirite?"

You leaned away from the skeleton with a suspicious glare. Why would he ask such a casual question like that? You'd never talked with him in depth about the other Sanses you had met in the anti-void, nor had you ever wanted to. You couldn't help but feel like you were being tricked by him somehow, and the glint in his eyes wasn't helping. It was just how a majority of Sanses worked. Almost every single one of those bastards was horribly manipulative in their own way. Either through ignorance or on purpose, each one who decided to hover around you ended up treating you like a puzzle to be solved and nothing more.

Was… Was Sans attempting to pry out some personal information about you? Was he trying to trick you into talking about your past by beginning with something small? He had already capitalised on your changing and vulnerable state by dragging you along on his little quest, so just what the hell did he think he could gain from a conversation about lil old you? What more did he think you would possibly tell him that you hadn't already?

"That's a stupid question," you growled, shutting down any chances for further inquiries with a dark glare. Perhaps you were just being paranoid, but aside from specific thoughts and experiences which you had weaponised to make others lose Hope, there were just some things you weren't willing to share anymore.

"... yeah, guess so," Sans admitted, letting his head drop as he looked away. The odd spark that he'd had deep in his eye sockets was extinguished. Your instant refusal to respond to his questioning seemed to really disappoint him, but he gracefully let the subject drop. "guess i was just curious if you ever talked to other me's. woulda been pretty interestin' to hear about."

You watched the skeleton sag as the conversation between you died a cold death. Silence fell like a heavy blanket, though it was more suffocating than warm. In fact the room became noticeably colder.

The floor was hard and unforgiving underneath you. You were so god damned tired. You should probably be asleep, but…

"What's with you suddenly?" you asked, tilting your head in confusion, "I was expecting something a bit different when you woke up. Why are you acting like… _this_?" You gestured at Sans' slumped form as he looked back at you.

You had honestly expected more pain and panic if or when Sans eventually awoke. What you _hadn't_ expected was for said skeleton to calmly start chatting with you and display borderline sadness when you mercilessly killed the conversation dead. Sure, this particular skeleton had shown off a multitude of odd quirks and behaviours to you so far, but now he was starting to act more… melancholy? It was like his smile was becoming more of a facade by the minute. In a way he was starting to look more like a typical Classic, and that was actually kind of weird for him.

Sans sighed, a rather disheartened tone present in his voice as he responded, "guess i just thought all this would go a lil better than it has so far. thought that maybe…- i dunno… like it'd be easier for us to work together if it all went well? there were signs that this world was different from mine but- well, i sorta just chose to ignore 'em. after i reassured ya that everything would be fine i really didn't want things to go south again… heh, oops." He shrugged and chuckled as he began to trace the lines in the wooden floor boards with his fingertip, "i was kinda hopin' you'd loosen up a lil bit if things went well enough. hasn't really worked out, obviously. 's a shame that the first world we stepped into had to start out like this. i woulda liked to work with some easier circumstances than this. so… what i'm sayin' is that i'm sorry for messin' up back there. guess i wasn't really expecting to get smacked down by my own bro..."

"Yeah, well-" you paused, unable to come up with a good enough insult for the regretful monster. It was hard to think of a way to blame him for something that wasn't really his fault. After making all those semi-promises to you in the anti-void, there had been no way for Sans to know that the first world you would end up in would be a Fell world. Bad luck was to blame, really. Still, he shouldn't have said all those ridiculous things in the first place, and you were going to let him know that! … Eventually. You hadn't slept enough to get you mental insult factory back into gear. At least, that's what you justified it as. There weren't many other explanations for why you couldn't gather the will to say something spiteful to the mopey skeleton.

Instead of wasting your breath on a mediocre quip, you decided to simply flop backwards onto the dog bed instead. The bed itself was too small and thin for you to actually sleep on, but when folded in half it made for a half decent pillow. You figured that now Sans was awake and acting all alive and whatever, you could probably catch a few Z's. Questions as to how he'd survived could wait until after you got some shut eye.

"uh, so, not to bother you," Sans piped up beside you, which _definitely_ bothered you, "i know ya desperately need the sleep and all after everythin'. i mean, your eyes are startin' to look darker than mine, heh. but seriously, what's the plan here?"

You took a deep breath as you closed your eyes, "The plan is: sleep, then back to the anti-void. We'll do that whole string trick again or something. Just pull out my Soul and we'll get going. Or pull out your own Soul if that's a thing you can do. 'S long as we get out of here before we get tortured and murdered, then it's not a problem."

You grunted as you pressed your back to the floorboards. You were going to end up with splinters. That didn't mean the makeshift pillow was that bad though. If you somehow ended up trapped in the anti-void again you wanted to try and remember how it felt so that you could recreate it when you went to sleep. A lot of the platforms you created to sleep on had been based on old memories which had dulled over time, meaning that they were never as solid or as cushy as you would have liked. It was kind of weird to have a point of reference for what a 'soft' surface felt like again. Apparently you had been doing it wrong for a very long time...

"wait, you wanna go straight back?" Sans asked, sounding worried for some reason, "wouldn't it be better to stick around and grab some supplies first?"

"This is a _Fell_ world, Sans. Even if this place's Papyrus miraculously decides to _not_ kill us, there's no guarantee that everyone else here will do the same."

"well i guess you'd know more 'bout it than me… but i don't have any more candies or nothin' on me. if we're gonna keep goin' like this i'm gonna at least hafta get some food to replenish-"

You heard a tiny gasp from the skeleton, as though he'd just experienced a 'eureka' moment.

"i'll be right back."

Three slippered steps were the only sound you heard as Sans' presence suddenly disappeared. You quickly realised that he must have teleported somewhere, completely bypassing the prison you were trapped in.

Actually, that was a strange thought. Sans could stealthily and successfully teleport around obstacles and the two of you together could bypass the boundaries of entire universes. Suddenly the concept of being 'trapped' seemed damn near impossible. With Sans' accidental discovery of how to enter universes and your similarly uncovered method of exiting them, you had so many options available to you. You… had never experienced that before.

It was only hitting you now. You could go _anywhere_ as long as you had Sans around to pull out your Soul for you. Not so long ago you had been resigned to existing meaninglessly in an empty reality until your life was finally ended at the whim of a psychopath. But now… Now you and Sans could plan to eject yourselves from an _entire universe_ and not even think twice on it. You hadn't even realised it, but you had gained an immense amount of freedom. If you didn't want to be in the anti-void, you could just leave. If you didn't like the universe you ended up in, you could turn around and go back. With an infinite amount of worlds out there, so many new paths had suddenly made themselves known that you found yourself intimidated by the sheer scope of what was now possible for you.

Was… was this what freedom was like?

No. There was a catch. In your sudden excited train of thought you had forgotten one important detail: _Error_.

As long as he was out there, prowling the multiverse, you were not free. It was his strings tied around your Soul that granted you the ability to find, enter, and exit alternate universes. But you couldn't let yourself forget what they _really_ were. They were a part of Error's magic; a tool for murder and torture.

Perhaps you were able to utilise them for your own means for a moment, but what about later? What about when Error inevitably came back for round two of breaking your limbs and realised you had tried to escape? You wouldn't be feeling so 'free' when he broke every bone in your body and never left his blue threads to linger around your Soul ever again. He would leave you to suffer in the anti-void once more, occasionally taunting you about the time you had tasted your freedom for just a second, right before he mercilessly ripped it away. He would hover above you, empty whiteness surrounding him on every side, grinning as the magic strings tightened around your bruised and broken body.

" _Do you remember when these strings helped you to escape?"_ he would whisper with a smile, " _Do you remember when, for a moment, they didn't slice into your worthless flesh and instead opened the door to freedom?"_

With every word the strings would tighten, drawing more blood which would float around you in a wide radius. You wouldn't look at them. Your eyes would have closed from the pain long ago.

" _Loo͜k a͞t ͡m̧e ͢w̨h҉e̢n ͢I ̧spea̵k ̕to͏ ̀you, g̨li͟tc̨h̷."_ he would order, and the strings would wrap around your head and rip it upwards. The pain would be unbearable, but you barely managed to slightly open one eye, gazing in defeat upon your captor. You couldn't say anything. You didn't have the will nor the energy after the unknown amount of time he'd spent torturing you.

" _Y͞o҉u҉ ́act̷ual҉l̡y̕ b̶el̴ie̵v͘ed̴ that͜ ͠y͢òu͞ co̵uld́ run away,_ " he chuckled, " _Ţhat's͡ pr҉ȩt̡tý ͝am̢u҉si͜n̸g...҉ ͘D͟įd͜ yơu͢ ̧r̕e͜a͘ll̵y ̷thin͢k ̛I wơųld͟n't fin̢d ̵yo̷u?͝ ̧Th̀at I wou̴lḑn'͞t p̨ún̡iśh͜ ͘yo҉ù?̨ ̀_ _ **B̨oth**_ _of yo͘u?"_

Error gestured his hand at something above your head and you heard multiple snaps and a scream cut short. Something fell all over your head. Grey. Powder-y. It was everywhere. You wanted to sneeze and cry at the same time. You tried to turn away from the dust but Error had the anti-void under his control so that it hung around you like your own personal cloud of death.

You couldn't look away as the maniac laughed at your suffering. Error had your body wrapped up so tightly you couldn't move an inch in any direction. But you didn't have to look anywhere to know who it was that was just killed above you. Maybe a Fell had failed to take him out, but Error had always been a monster in every meaning of the word. It was only a matter of time before your Sans died just like countless other versions of himself had before.

The dust settled in your hair, on your clothes, floated into your wounds, mixed in with your silent tears… Error came closer until all you could see through the grey particles invading your eyes was the unsettling red and yellow of his irises. That bastard. That irredeemable piece of _shit_! The only person you hated as much as him was probably Fresh, and even that was partially Error's fault as well.

" _Y̵ou̵ ̀w͜ill҉ ne͘v͏e͏r ̡e̕sca͡p̴e̕,"_ he hissed menacingly as you glared at him through your tear-filled eyes, " _You'͜l͘l̛ s͠t҉a̧y herę.͜ A̶lo̸ne͏.̷ ̵And ̡n͝o ҉one ͜w͏i̷ļl ́ever̕ ̨com͟e͞ tơ ŗes̡c̛ue ͞y͢ou͞ ̡aga͞i͏n̸."_

The strings shook with the giddy malice of his threat, rocking you from side to side. You tried to curl in on yourself, but there was no escape. There was never any escape. No matter what you did, you were trapped.

" _You͠ ̷ẃi̡l͟l b͟é st̛u̸c̷k͏ ́w̶i̕t̀h me̡ he̡r҉e f͟o̸reve̵r.͞ I͟ ̸w̧i̶l͘l̕ ̸t̨o̸rtur̛e͞ yoù únt͘il th̕e end̕ ̧of͜ t͞íme̶.͏ ͝A͝nd̡ I͏'ll neve̛r̢ ҉l̷e͡t̀ ́y̷o͡u d̴ie."_

Error's grin stretched wider as he watched you writhe silently in agony, unable to scream because you knew nothing would come out even if you did. There was no one to scream out to anyway. The only people who'd ever tried to help you had either betrayed you or died.

The strings rocked you harder, shaking your body relentlessly as you grit your teeth in silence. Everything was so pointless. How could you have ever possibly believed otherwise?

" _A͢n̴d̨ ̧at t̵he͝ ̵e͠nd͝ ̀o̕f́ ̡it ̶al͡l,͏ ̨w̧he͡n yo͘u c̷án'̢t ͜t̷ak͢e an͏y̨more,̵ w͡he͟n̷ ̀a͞l͘l ̵y͟o̸ur m̵e͢mo̴rie͠s ́have ́l҉eft ̷y̵o̡u e͝n͠t̛irely,̨ ̧whe͝n ̧I'͠ve̴ b͜r̢oken ͘y̢ou͝ a t͏h́ous̨an̡d t́imes ̵o̸ve̵r҉.̡.̷"_ the dark skeleton chuckled lowly, his voice nearly a whisper, " _Ąf́t̡er̛ a͞l͜l͠ ţhe̷ ̛p͏aìn ̵a͞n͏d̛ t̸h̢e ̨ţo̡r͡tur̵e ҉a͢n͢d t҉he is̨o͡l̢at҉io̵n̛…͟ y͜o̢u͘ ̡wil͟l͏ ̧final̸ly en̶d up͜_ _ **ẹ̮͔̩͙̦̖x͍a̞͘c͙͈̹͈̕t̵͚̲͜l̵͉̦͝ỳ̢̡̥̮̝̝͚̪͈ ̶̴̫͍̱̱͟ͅl͏̛̹͔͞i͖͈͇̰k̶̦̥͉̝̗̲ḙ̶͕̘̜̬̥͝ ̳̖͘m̴̨̺̼̙͉̤̭é̶͏̬̫̲̫̼̞̫ͅ**_ _."_

With a loud cackle Error threw his arms out to the sides and watched his strings tear through you, ripping into your body from every direction at once, cutting open your very Soul as your entire being was shaken and sliced and separated into tiny, bloody pieces by his magic until you were nothing but red and pain and tears-

Suddenly your eyes snapped open and you immediately struck out in panic at the first thing you could see in front of you. There was a yelp, but your fist didn't connect with anything. After your instinctual punch failed you tried to wriggle backwards, but something was latched onto your shoulders. Your hands found their way to whatever it was that was preventing your escape and started to tug and claw at it as you squirmed in terror.

"h-hey, woah! calm down! it's okay! it's over. it was just a bad dream…"

You blinked your eyes as Sans finally came into focus above you, gripping onto your shoulders with a horribly concerned look on his face. The shock of seeing him alive halted your desperate clawing for a moment, right before you came back to your senses and shoved his hands off of you completely, sitting up swiftly with your back to him. There were still tear tracks covering your face from your nightmare and you needed to wipe them off as fast as possible.

"are you okay?" Sans asked behind you, worry evident in his voice.

"I'm fine," you mumbled back, furiously rubbing at your face with your coat sleeves.

"you sure? 'cause you looked like you were in pain. i would've woken ya up sooner but i didn't even notice what was happening! you weren't making a sound but you were shakin' so much... it's- it's not good to look so scared when you're sleepin', pal. are ya sure you don't wanna tell me-"

"I said I'm _FINE!_ "

You could feel Sans flinch at your sudden volume and harsh tone of voice, but you couldn't feel bad for him. It had been a long time since you had last had a nightmare that ended up affecting you so badly. Normally you would've been just as apathetic in your dreams as when you were awake. Distant memories of your life and cruel recollections of torture alike always seemed so distant through the haze of your dreams, but the nightmare you'd just experienced was a horrible exception. It wasn't even the most gruesome dream you'd ever experienced, but somehow it had scared you all the same. The worst part of it was that you hadn't even realised that you'd fallen asleep. You simply hadn't been expecting to feel something so powerful so suddenly.

You took a deep breath and willed your heart to stop trying to beat itself out of your ribcage, careful not to breath too hard through your snot filled nose. You were not going to allow yourself to accidentally sniffle, damnit! You weren't some whimpering child!

Finally getting yourself under control a bit after your unexpected scare, you turned your attention back to Sans who was still behind you.

"What do you want _now_?" you grunted, voice thick from your bad sleep and the screams that you hadn't allowed to escape your throat.

"i, uh… ahem..."

You listened as he stood up and walked around to your front, both hands shoved into his pockets as he carefully circled your sitting form. Rather than glare at him, you pretended to be busy fiddling with the hood of your coat, pulling it up over your head so that you could hide your wet eyes better. Sans didn't need to see your unwanted distress any more than he had already.

Suddenly there was a bony hand in your face and you reflexively scrunched your nose at it. Why was he always doing that? Boldly shoving his stupid fingers under your nose like you wouldn't try to bite one off one day out of annoyance?

You followed the limb up to Sans' smiling face from beneath your hood, confused and irritated in equal parts.

"c'mon," he said as he wriggled his fingers at you, offering for you to take his hand, "i scouted things out a bit and found something you'll like. it'll be easier to just take ya there now. i promise you won't regret it."

...

...

...

Gratz to all you guys who guessed Underfell! It's one of the most popular ones out there, so of course it had to be included.

I would link you to the Source material if I could... but the original tumblr page dissapeared a long time ago. It's weird... I swear I saw it once upon a time... I even remember the original designs and some of the fan art/comics the mod was reblogging... RIP i guess.


	14. var hopeRegen: float 1

I was asked to share how I got Error's text to look the way it does, so I thought I'd simpy share it with all of you. It's called Zalgo, a glitchy text generator. Just search the name Zalgo and you should be able to find it pretty easily! Unfortunately, FF _hates_ the vertical symbols it generates on its higher settings, so use it with caution!

Ḥ͔͈̙̹͈̹ͪ͆͆͆ͣ̃E̸̗̥̪͉̓͘ͅ ̟̮̝̗̺̃ͦ̈́C͈͕̗͚̙̞͙̏̇̈́ͨ͒͂͑̃́O̱̣͓̪͇̥̚͘M̢͍̯ͯ̉ͥͩ͟E͚̼̯͓͔̱̔̎̇ͦͥ̾̉̈́͌̀S̨̖̥̥͇̪̭̫̱ͦͣ̏ͬͨ͛͡

...

...

...

* * *

As you lay down in an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar house in an unfamiliar world, you could not have been happier.

Despite your scoffing and scowling at Sans for wanting to drag you somewhere immediately after your nightmare, following him had been the best thing you had ever done. It turned out that while you had been unsuspectingly lured into and trapped in your dreams, the short skeleton had swiftly located his house in the Fell-verse you were in and confirmed that no one was home. That meant that while there was no one around to catch either of you, Sans could freely rummage through the fridge downstairs for anything edible while you got to lie down and rest.

You had been left in a dark room with a pungent odor and a few bits of trash hanging about, but according to Sans it was both faster and easier for him to get to if you both needed to escape in a hurry. At first he had considered just letting you sleep on the couch in the living room, but then he realised it was too close to the front door to be safe. Next he'd thought about letting you into the room at the top of the stairs, but that wasn't much more secure. According to him it would take about two and a half seconds for a certain tall skeleton to burst into the house, jump up the stairs and enter said room, which apparently wasn't enough time for him to react and teleport over to you.

The room you were eventually Ieft in certainly wasn't lacking in the security department. It had several bolts, locks and chains spanning the surface of the door, both inside and out. You had almost expected to see something sinister behind it, but with a single, seamless shortcut from Sans you were met with a rather lackluster bedroom. It was hardly anything worth guarding, really. Maybe the excessive locks were some kind of elaborate joke?

Well, whatever. According to Sans it was your safest option for the time being, no matter how boring and dirty the interior seemed. Not that you were complaining.

Despite the smell and the garbage and the weird thickness in the air, the dark room had one redeeming quality to it: the Bed.

Honestly, that bed was like _heaven_ to you. Sure, it had no blankets or pillows or covers or a frame of any kind, which technically made it more of a lone mattress than a bed. And sure, it kind of, sort of, definitely smelled like mustard and sweat and a few other musty things you couldn't place. _And sure_ , it had more than its fair share of suspect stains soaked permanently into its fabric… But maybe that was what heaven was _actually_ like? You wouldn't know since you'd never been to heaven and couldn't compare the two. At least, you _probably_ hadn't. Maybe. You didn't remember it at least, and that seemed like the kind of thing you would remember. Possibly.

Anyway, the point was that the matress was _soft_. Softer than the dog's bed at least. And you could fit your entire body onto it! Amazing! It was truly an endless gift from above! You had been so pleased the first time you'd flopped onto the springy surface that you might have even smiled. Also you might've let slip an actual, genuine thanks to Sans. If you did then he kind of deserved it anyway for finally delivering on one of his promises. You couldn't really remember if you'd actually said it though, since you had fallen back to sleep so fast. You hadn't even had a single dream while you slept, which really helped to erase the lingering remnants of little nightmare in that homemade jail.

After waking again you simply continued to lie there and soak in all of the softness you'd been gifted. If you had to spend your life in one place for the rest of forever, then you wished you could trade the entire anti-void for that disgusting little room and its ball of greasy sheets and perpetual trash tornado and unused treadmill and its singular, soft, _absolutely sublime_ _bed!_

Mattress.

Whatever.

You truly hoped that Sans would take his sweet ass time with finding supplies because you did not want to get up for _anything_.

Of course, just as you were thinking that, Sans decided to return.

"knock, knock."

Sans chuckled as he appeared from nowhere and sat down on the bed next to you, watching as you let out a whiny groan with your eyes still closed. Urrgh… His weight was tipping the bed… mattress… whatever... You would have to adjust yourself for maximum comfort all over again! Or perhaps you could lift your foot and kick him off? … Nah, too much effort…

"heh heh… you look like you're enjoyin' yourself." Sans snickered by your side as you rolled onto your back and peeked out at him though a single, drowsy eyelid. He seemed pretty content himself, pockets shoved full of whatever he had found lying about in the house.

"... Did you enjoy robbing these people blind?" you asked flatly as you yawned. His stealing didn't actually bother you, after all, you were tressapssing as well and had basically confiscated one of the stranger's beds for yourself. It just seemed a little confusing that he would even bother. You didn't really understand why Sans was convinced that he needed supplies like food and… more food. It was kind of weird in your eyes. But then again, your Sans was a weird kind of guy.

"hey now, it's not really stealin' if it's your own home! and this place is like my home's cousin a couple of times removed. it's the home that's technically a stranger but still gets invited over 'round the holidays for some reason." Sans' face tried and failed to look semi-serious as he 'ranted' at you. However, one raised eyebrow was all it took for his act to crack as he broke into a whole new round of snickering.

You lightly batted at him, grumbling about all the noise he was making while you were trying to rest. The action only seemed to amuse him more, and he struggled to recover from the continuous chuckles he was letting out.

"here. got ya somethin'" he smiled, finally getting himself under control.

You peered suspiciously at the item he was holding out to your lying form. It was long and round and smelled of grease. It consisted of a red inner tube surrounded almost completely by a more cream-coloured outer layer. You could have sworn you recognised what it was from somewhere in your distant memories, but it was hard to place the name of it.

Oh wait! It was called a _hotdog_! Of course. How could you have forgotten? Almost every Sans went on about the stupid things in one way or another. Some of them loved them, others hated them, and for some god damned reason a lot of them seemed to prefer eating the stuff that went _on_ them instead of the 'dog itself. But despite how much some of the subsets you'd met went on and on about the simplistic foodstuff, it had actually been a long time since you'd seen one with your own eyes.

… Wait, _why_ were you being given a hotdog?

"uh, hey? hello? did ya forget how to eat or somethin'?" Sans' voice interrupted your silent staring contest with the sausage-and-bread combo as he waved his free hand in front of your face. He chuckled again as he finally caught your attention, shoving he hotdog straight into your hands and pulling out a bottle of ketchup. You briefly wondered if the bottle was the same one that started the whole mess in the forest, since you had never seen the taller skeleton actually take it back. But your musings were interrupted when Sans started speaking again.

"heh. never seen someone look at a 'dog that seriously before," he grinned as he began to slather his own hotdog in the red condiment.

"What do you even expect me to do with this?" you finally asked, eyebrows furrowed in both confusion and irritation.

"uh… try putting it on your head and spinnin' in circles." A quick glare from you caused Sans to laugh again. "hehehheh! i'm kiddin'. why don't ya just eat it? y'know, open your mouth and start chewin'."

"But I'm not hurt right now."

Sans gave you a curious look as you lowered the hotdog onto your stomach, clearly not intending to do anything with it. You didn't understand what was up with the skeleton's logic. Had he really gone through all the trouble of finding food just so that he could waste some of it when you weren't even injured? That didn't make sense! What was the point?

But Sans seemed to think _you_ were the odd one if the look on his face was any indication.

"you… you do know ya don't have to be hurt to eat _food_ , right?"

That… didn't sound right for some reason. Monster food was great for recovering HP and sometimes even healing physical wounds if it was strong enough, so why eat it when you weren't hurt? It was a complete waste of time and energy to do so.

You opened your mouth to tell Sans that when a loud growl interrupted you.

"heh, _wow_ ," Sans widened his eyes dramatically as he stared at your stomach, "y'know, if the kid hadn't done that around me once already, i would be lookin' twice as surprised as you do now. better eat up! here, i'll even let ya have what's left."

You stared in bewilderment as Sans shook the red ketchup bottle playfully in your face. What the hell? Had you actually made that weird noise? How? Your stomach… it ached… and you didn't know _why_. Meanwhile, Sans took your confusion to his advantage as he cheekily started to squirt _waaaaay_ to much sauce over your hotdog.

"say when!" he snickered as the bottle spluttered and spilled everywhere.

"Oh my god! Stop! What are you doing!?"

You flailed in panic as you tried to swat Sans away while still instinctively keeping ahold of your hotdog. You should have known better than to trust your traitorous instincts. The damn thing ended up being coated in so much ketchup that it started running down your arms and dripping all over your shirt. It was impossible to tell that your hands were anywhere under the red mess as Sans laughed and continued to upend the entire bottle over you.

"nope~ weren't ya listening? you're 'sposed to say 'when', not 'stop'!"

"When! _When_!"

"well, since you're askin', whenever ya like!"

"Wh- Stop-! Get the hell away from me you idiot!"

Finally, with a well placed kick to the ribs, you sent Sans toppling over the edge of the bed- mattress- where he landed in a fit of laughter. The sauce bottle was dropped with a light _clunk_ against the floor, completely empty. Alas, you hadn't been fast enough.

Thick red trails of ketchup sluggishly dripped down your arms as you grimaced at the lump in your hands that was probably once a hotdog. Damn it. You looked like you had ripped out someone's fucking liver with your bare hands. What a _waste_.

"You asshole!" you growled down at Sans as he continued to snort and guffaw on the ground not far below you, "What the hell did you do that for!?"

" _snrk_ \- heheheh! th-the look on your _face!_ "

There were no words to describe just how unamused you were with the skeleton's prank. And yet, despite the fact that you were partially covered in a cheap and sickly sweet tomato pureé, you couldn't help but be reminded of how strangely durable your Sans was. Just as you had thought nothing of the action, Sans hadn't given a single damn about getting kicked by you. Most Sanses would have gone out of their way to dodge such a hit, however unintentional, or otherwise ended up dust because that was just how delicate a one HP monster could be. Maybe it was time to start asking all those questions you'd been stockpiling…

"Hey, have you ever murdered anyone?"

Sans immediately choked on his own laughter, coughing and hacking in surprise at you sudden morbid inquiry. You didn't know how he did it, considering… well, y'know… _skeletons_.

"wh- _cough!-_ wh-what the _hell_ kinda question is _that_?" The previously chortling skeleton sat bolt upright with concern, eyeing you as though you were crazy. You merely shrugged at him.

"I'm just trying to guess your LV."

"what? why?" Sans frowned, looking more unsettled by the second, "i've never killed anyone! why would you even _think_ that?"

"Oh," you mumbled, "You're sure? Not even one person?"

"i'm pretty sure i'd know!"

"Not even because of those Reset things you rambled about?"

"wh- no! no i- i'm pretty sure i never- frisk woulda said- … what brought this on?"

"Nothing. If you're sure then you're sure, I guess. At least you don't _look_ like a liar."

You turned your attention back to your drenched hotdog as you mentally scratched 'High LV' off the list of things that could have kept Sans alive. That left you with very few possibilities. The decibel system was probably out too, considering how Sans didn't seem to be writhing and sweating in agony after each hit, as anyone capable of decibel point HP usually did. Maybe monsters in his world worked a little more like humans then? It would explain why the candy he had given you was more potent than most. But then again you distinctly remembered that he hadn't shown physical signs of injury when Error's had almost snapped his neck. That was usually a big indicator that the damaged subject in question was following commonly monster-aligned rules… Perhaps he was working with an odd combination of the two?

"... well, i can _see_ you've never killed anyone at least, so you can't be askin' 'cause of that," Sans mumbled slightly as he rejoined you on the bed, "i've never gone that far, mostly 'cause i never had to, and i'm guessin' you haven't either. your soul's got no EXP or anythin' in it, so whatever this is about, you can't be that bad."

"Ha… That's a pretty weak system to base a judgement off of…" you huffed bitterly. EXP and LV was a simple measurement of how much a person had killed with their own two hands. The higher a person's LV, the stronger and more apathetic they became when claiming more victims. But those kinds of stats only accounted for murder, leaving other atrocities to the unknown. Lies couldn't be measured in the same way EXP was. Foul intent wasn't always as easy to read as a person's LV. And perhaps most damning of all, not every kill was counted… as long as the death delivered wasn't committed with your own two hands.

"... do… do ya wanna talk about-?"

" _No_."

You stared blankly at the red mess in your hands. Perhaps one question was enough for now. It was kind of dangerous to ask Sans about himself and not expect some prying in return. For a moment your head became completely empty as your thoughts drifted back to somewhere deep within your memories… Of course, you failed to find anything back there. Just like always.

Your mind returned when your stomach made another disturbing noise, disgusting you enough to bring you back to the present and make you aware of the mess you were covered in once more. _Argh_! Something in you really ached! What the hell was going on with you? It felt like your stomach was becoming more concave by the second!

"uh… you, uh… sound pretty hungry…"

"Hun...gry?" you blinked, sounding out the word as if you had heard it for the first time in your life, "Wait. Hun- _This_ is hunger? Shit, _really_? It feels weird…"

Sans' jaw nearly fell open in disbelief as he stared at you.

"w-wait, you're serious!? haven't you ever felt _hunger_ before? what the hell? when was the last time you actually _ate_ something?!"

"Obviously not recently!" you retorted angrily, for some reason feeling insulted by the skeleton's shock. "Except for that pocket candy I haven't eaten since… um... Look, you don't need things like _food_ in the anti-void, okay? Once you're in there you're basically immortal unless you go out of your way to fix that. How the hell was I supposed to know what _hunger_ felt like after living in there for god knows how long!?"

Even through your ranting, Sans continued to stare at you in silence. He seemed to be processing the fact that you could have possibly forgotten such a basic function of living, until…

"holy shit… you must be... you're so _old_!"

You reeled back as Sans began to laugh in your face, incredibly amused with his realisation for some mysterious reason.

"I'm not-!" you began, but stopped yourself, "Well actually… yeah, I probably am really old. Or I could be really young and just forgetful."

You blinked and frowned deeply as you tried to figure out if you'd been in the anti-void for either a long or a short amount of time. It had probably been the former, since you were almost certain a fair amount of bullshit that had happened in there couldn't have taken place in anything less than a couple of months- years even. And that wasn't even counting the time that was lost due to your weak memory and endless naps.

Calming down, Sans smiled at you widely, eyes crinkling at some sort of secret joke.

"you know, we're not actually that different."

You scrunched your nose at the accusation. How had he come to that conclusion? You weren't nearly half as weird as the skeleton in front of you, and you certainly didn't have the same sense of humour if the red sauce all over your torso was any indication.

In response to your skeptical glare, Sans elaborated; "i actually have no idea how old i am either. i mean, if you asked paps or anyone, they could probably tell ya. but it wouldn't be _right_. with all the resets i kinda lost track of just how long i was stuck in the loop… so much happened. i mean, there was frisk, but there was other stuff too. like flowey. oh man, pal, you do not even act _half_ as bad as that little weed. and not to mention the stuff that was dug up in the lab. took _forever_ to deal with the 'hope for monsterkind' that the tapes mentioned. glad frisk pointed me to it though. woulda taken forever to get outta that one if the kid hadn't pulled through to deliver _that_ clue."

He sighed deeply, eye-lights wandering away to the ceiling as he tried to recall old memories. Eventually he shrugged, a carefree smile still on his face.

"i guess it worked out in the end though. i might not be able to remember half of the stuff that happened anymore… but when the kid finally broke the barrier… man, that feeling of the wind… and the _sun_. god, that sunset alone made it all worth it."

You stared openly as Sans smiled peacefully and closed his eyes. Why… why was he suddenly telling you these things? Wh-what was his goal? You didn't… You didn't understand. But you still followed his every movement as though entranced, unwittingly hanging onto every detail.

The contented look on his face made something twist inside of you, and you thought perhaps you felt a twinge of envy. Had you ever known the feeling of freedom that Sans was describing? Even though you now technically had the ability to hop through the barriers between universes, you still didn't feel as at peace as that one memory of a sunset seemed to make Sans. You were… You were jealous… But with the way you were now, you would probably never have that feeling for yourself. If only you had found your way out of the anti-void sooner, before you had begun to wither away on the inside. Maybe then you could have appreciated the illusion of freedom a little bit more...

Very suddenly, Sans snapped out of his trance, grinning bitterly as he lowered his eyes back to the bed.

"course, that was about three minutes before that fucker error came and ripped it all to pieces. still can't believe that after all that effort it just got… snatched away like that. 'course, i'm not gonna let it all go to waste. not after it took so _goddamn long_. i'll get that sunset back no matter what. and after that i'm takin' paps and frisk and tori and everyone… an' we're gonna go stargazin'. it'll be great."

He laughed a quiet laugh at the thought, finally looking back to you. The weird glint was back in his sockets again. That _thing_ sparkled in his eye, just present enough for you to notice but still too subtle to pinpoint properly.

"you're invited too, of course," he smiled, calm and relaxed, "can't pull off a stunt this big alone, y'know? maybe we got off on the wrong foot, and i'm real sorry about that, but it'll be worth it if ya just trust me a bit, okay? really, the sunset'll blow your mind."

You could have sworn you heard all the cogs in your head grind to a screeching halt as you met with Sans' genuine expression. He was still dead set on making his insane Universe Reset plan work… and he was asking _you_ to trust him so you could work together. He believed it would all work out. And… and he trusted _you_ believe in it too, if the look he was giving you was any indication. He… he _trusted_ you. After you'd done _nothing_ to gain said trust.

What a colossal moron.

"... You're a real fuckin' weirdo, you know that?" you grumbled. Sans immediately started snickering again, taking your dry and confused tone as some kind of joke. But you had meant it in all seriousness. There was not one thing about the supposed 'Classic' that didn't shatter your expectations completely. After all, what kind of madman would chose to believe in someone as openly hostile as you? Honestly, he was the multi-verse's most confusing product of all time.

" _snrk-_ says the human who can't even figure out how to eat a hotdog when they're starvin'!" Sans snorted, bringing your attention back to the mess all over your arms and shirt. Shit, it was drying. Gross.

Just to show the chuckling skeleton you knew how to eat because you weren't some stupid _child_ , you angrily brought the red lump up to your face and took a bite. It was cold and the bread was soaked through from the outrageous amount of sauce, making it soggy and weird. On top of that it was way too sweet from all the added sugar in the ketchup. Basically it was pretty damn terrible, but you continued to eat it out of spite. And also maybe because it made your stomach feel much better too. Sans' hotdog was no where to be seen, so you assumed he ate it at some point… somehow. You would have to remember to eat more frequently if you were going to enter more universes. Starvation would be a lame way to go.

"Tfwere. Arfh yoo haphy nahow?" you almost choked as you finished shoving the last of the 'dog into your mouth. Sans covered his teeth with his hands, shaking with mirth as he stared at your bloated cheeks. Oh, he just thought everything was _so damn funny_ didn't he? Well. You would be the one having the last laugh!

Quickly, you whipped out your newly freed hands and wiped them from dome to jaw over Sans' skull, smearing ketchup all over his big, stupid face. He flinched hard and barely managed to close his eye sockets in time as you made sure that the condiment was spread nice and thoroughly over his features.

Then you kicked him off the bed again. Just for good measure.

The sound of the skeleton hitting the floorboards again made you snort and nearly spit out a mouthful of crumbs. You had to swallow quickly before you could properly erupt into a fit of both coughs and victorious laughter.

While punching at your chest to clear your windpipes, you watched Sans rise up again, a hint of mischief twisting his sauce-slathered expression from a smile into a smirk.

"so… that's the way it's gonna be, huh?" he whispered ominously, eye twitching, "you'll regret gettin' _saucy_ with me, pal."

The cap being popped off of the previously discarded ketchup bottle was the last thing you heard before things got crazy. You had no idea why you even took the petty fight as seriously as you did, but it was probably because you were an incredibly petty person anyway. Didn't that stupid sack of bones know you had beaten _Fresh_ in a game of wits not so long ago? It would be a cold day in hell before you let anyone get the better of you in a fight- let alone a run-of-the-mill Sans who didn't even have his blasters on him! Be it a stand off to the death with an abomination or a small tussle to put a certain prankster back in his place, you weren't going to lose!

"is that all you've got? you've gotta _ket-chup_ , buddy!"

"you might've hit me once, but the war isn't won 'till you've covered me from my head _to-ma-toes_!"

"why would i stop making puns? they're the _sauce_ of my power!"

Humph. More like the source of _your_ power, 'cause the more puns there were, the more you were filled with the righteous need to stop them.

You relentlessly chased after Sans, dashing and darting around the room in pursuit of the taunting skeleton. His ability to take shortcuts was the only thing that kept him from getting caught. Every time you lept or twisted to get to him, he would step effortlessly to the side and appear to slide leisurely away from your reach. Every time you turned and had him dead center in your view the bastard would do it again and again and _again-!_

Heh... He didn't even realise that you were using his ability to lead him into a trap.

You smirked as you failed another lunge, watching smugly as realisation hit Sans' face even in the middle of his dodge. He hadn't noticed thanks to your constant close pursuit, but you had purposefully goaded him into shortcutting into the corner of the room containing the magical trash tornado.

He yelped as he realised his mistake, trying to slide out of the circling winds before it was too late. Unfortunately his feet were pulled off the ground before he could make a move. Pretty soon you found yourself laughing hysterically as the startled skeleton was trapped in amongst the crumpled balls of paper and lint, spinning helplessly as he flailed in the air about three feet off the ground.

"w-woah! oh shit! this thing's way stronger than mine was!" he yelled in a panic as he scrambled for any kind of purchase. You merely cackled at his pittiful attempts to gain any kind of footing, pleased with the results of your efforts.

"Hahahahaha! _Wow_. Did you _really_ think I would lose to you?" you snickered pridefully, "Please. I know every trick in the book, and you're the most standard there is. I know all your moves before you do, and I can preempt practically any kind of teleport if I try. So you don't have to feel bad about getting _served_."

"eh. i give that pun an eight outta ten. coulda been more on point."

Despite the rageing winds, you could still see the skeleton's smile at your joke. Then, with calculated pressision, Sans twisted his body and slammed his feet on the wall as he spun by it, shooting forward and dissapearing into thin air.

You blinked before your instincts kicked into gear and you jumped backwards, just narrowly dodging as Sans barrelled in from your left, aiming to catch you off guard. Well now, it looked like you would be able to prove your boasting wasn't just hot air.

Grabbing the back of his hoodie as he passed, you yanked Sans back and used his momentum to twirl him around you. The sharp turn and speed caused him to trip with a yelp, and he hit the ground so hard that he bounced and rolled from his face onto his back.

Wasting no time (because you didn't know how quickly he could recover and teleport out of your reach again), you snatched up the ketchup bottle which had been dropped in the scuffle and sat heavily on your target's chest, pinning him down.

"Ooh… I think there's still a little bit of sauce in here!" you crooned as you shook the bottle, "Here, why don't you take a closer look."

Grinning from ear to ear, you upended the bottle over Sans' face. It was mostly empty, mostly from Sans' prank and the way he'd been flicking it about during your fight, so nothing came out- immediately, that is. There was still a small pool of ketchup clinging to the sides and base of the bottle, just waiting for gravity to help it congregate and develop enough mass to fall into the skeleton's startled eye socket.

"no, no, nono, nonononono!" Sans repeated nervously below you, trying to grab at your arms and pull the bottle away. You merely laughed at him, using your free hand to restrain his struggling while the other held the container of sluggishly decending liquid triuphantly. You were aiming right for the back of his skull, straight through the socket if you could prevent the skeleton from blinking. Hell, why not go the whole hundred yards and stick the whole bottle in there for good measure? You didn't know if it'd end up hurting Sans… but _eh_ , fuck 'im. It was his fault for picking a fight with you. He should have known better by now.

A loud _SLAM_ from downstairs interrupted you. Out of instinct, both you and Sans looked towards the bedroom door. By the time you looked back, the ketchup had already leaked out of the bottle and splattered onto the left temple of his skull. Aw, boo, that wasn't what you'd been aiming for.

Another loud _CRASH_ shot up from the floor below you, causing you and Sans to share a look.

"uh oh, party's over," Sans whispered, "sounds like someone's home."

Before you could reply, a scream pierced through the air, barely muffled at all by the walls of the house.

"WHY HAS MY FRIDGE BEEN REARRANGED? WHO MOVED MY LASAGNA?!"

You frowned quietly at the ridiculous outburst taking place below you. Lasagna, huh? These god damn skeletons and their various relationships with random foodstuffs...

As Sans got out from under you, you raised an eyebrow at him. He took note of your silent accusation and attempted to flutter his eyelids to show his innocence. It would have worked better if he had eyelashes.

"We're gonna get murdered if he comes up here," you quietly muttered, not very amused at the skeleton's antics.

"welp, i guess that's our queue to leave then."

Silently, Sans waved a hand and pulled your Soul out from your body. Error's blue strings instantly became visible around the heart once more, seemingly melting into the deep blue that Sans' own magic coloured it as he dragged it forward.

You both stood, with yourself tugging on the strings experimentally once you were fully upright.

Just as you turned to offer an arm for Sans to hold onto, the sharp smell of sulfer filled the room. There was a brief moment where all the air seemed to dissapear completely and you couldn't breathe. Everything went dark for a second, like you had blinked when you didn't mean to, and before you could do anything, somone else was standing across from you and Sans, staring at you with intense confusion.

"wha- who the _fuck_ are you and what d'ya think yer doin' in my room?"


	15. SetDestination (Readerposition)

Here's another SCode Chap commin' at ya because I am having serious trouble dealing with my other fanfic! Hahaha... ha... haaa...

damn its like writing is actually hard somthin.

...

...

...

* * *

Both you and Sans stood frozen as you were stared down by… well, _Sans_. The other skeleton had all the qualities you expected from a Fell; red turtleneck, black jacket with far too much fluff in the hood, pitch black shorts with yellow stripes, deep red circles under his eyes which mirrored his brother's… You supposed you should have seen this coming from a mile away considering that Sans literally _told_ you the house you were in was a parallel of his own. _Obviously_ the bedroom would likely belong to parallel of himself as well. Why did you trust Sans when he said that it would be fine?

Oh, right, it was because the bed- _mattress_ \- had been too good to pass up (and great to _pass out_ on, too).

You watched as the other Sans glanced between the both of you and the deep blue heart floating in front of your chest, then back to you again. Oooooh shit. The growing grin on his skull told you that he'd figured out you were human. Or at least his world's equivalent. That was not often a good thing when it came to Fells. Now would be a good time to leave...

You grabbed at Sans- your Sans, not the one who was staring at you like a lottery prize- and tried to pull him closer while still glaring threateningly at the newcomer. It would be pretty awkward if you managed to accidentally leave him behind in a hostile universe. You wouldn't know what to do with yourself at this point if you didn't have Sans constantly nagging at you. If you left him behind you would either have to stay in the anti-void alone, waiting for Error to snap and kill you, or risk jumping into another universe all by yourself with no clear goal and no escape if things went south. If you abandoned him now, Sans would probably be tortured to death by his counterpart, which was not a very beneficial outcome to you anymore.

Unfortunately Sans seemed pretty stiff and unresponsive even as you tugged at his sleeve as subtly as possible. It seemed he was pretty shocked to so suddenly encounter his alternate self- intimidated even. Maybe it was the fact the other guy had sharp, shark-like teeth, one of which was a glinting solid gold. Maybe it was the fact that his eye lights were a blood red instead of the usual white, both containing way too much malice for their beady size. Or maybe it had to do with the fact that the guy was fucking _huge_.

If you had to identify the new Sans' subsets other than Fell, you would probably go with _Bara_ , _Lorge_ , or just plain ol' _Big_. Like, for real, the other Sans was _**BIG**_. And your guy was so _small._ It was no wonder the Papyrus you ran into seemed to have no idea who your Sans was- comparing the two was like comparing a great dane to a chihuahua. The visual difference was so spectacular that the smaller skeleton seriously looked like he was about to shit a brick. He was just so stunned and terrified that you almost could've laughed at him.

The key word being _almost_.

"well? haven't ya got anythin' to say fer yerselves?" the Fell chuckled as he took a threatening step forward. His voice was much deeper and darker than any Classic, likely drawn down by the weight of his gut and tempered by an inclination for cruelty. Even his steps were louder as his larger form caused the wooden flooring to groan its disapproval of his weight. He eyed you with a sharp grin as he made his way forward, just slow enough that you wouldn't snap and run before he could pounce.

"whazzat? ya ain't gonna tell me nothin'?" he drawled as he towered over Sans' frozen form and your defensive one, "guess i'll jus' have ta make ya talk myself~"

As he pulled a clawed hand out of his black pockets and raised it towards you, you instantly retaliated. Instead of simply tugging the strings flowing out from your Soul, you whipped your arm out in a wide arc and yanked them sideways. The ends of the threads followed your movements, tangling around the bones of the large skeleton's left leg and pulling it out from under him.

He grunted in surprise as he slipped, his sneaker squeaking along the floor as he stumbled, but his weight was far too much for you to trip him over completely. After a bit of wobbling, he steadied himself again and hissed open-mouthed at you, his two rows of knife-like fangs on full display against the pitch black darkness inside his skull.

With a flick of his wrist your heart turned an even darker shade of blue and you were flung into the far wall. Now, you normally would pride yourself on your ability to preempt any teleportation technique, as well as your talent for dodging magical, bone-shaped projectiles and lasers- but Blue Magic (aka Gravity Magic) was an unavoidable pain in your ass, no matter what universe it hailed from. Dodging wasn't really a thing when the magic in question used your very Soul against you.

A sickening _Crack!_ echoed through your head as you slammed into the hard surface, your vision flickering into nothing for a split second. Pain bloomed in both your skull and your chest as you fell to the ground, your Soul having been forcefully returned to your body from the impact. Before you, the Fell Sans grinned and prepared a follow up strike.

Through the ringing in your ears you heard Sans- your Sans- shout something. Suddenly there were stark white bones in front of you, blocking a series of almost identical red ones from skewering you alive.

You squinted through the pain as the Fell Sans turned his murderous gaze onto his smaller, bluer counterpart. Sans was surprisingly calm for someone who had just made themselves a target. His left eye blazed with blue and yellow magic, a trickle of nervous sweat running down his head as he stared down his opponent.

" _If you think I'm just going to stand here and let you attack my buddy over there, you've got another thing coming, pal_."

There was a brief flicker of surprise on the Fell's face before a wave of white bones surrounded him, pinning him in place between them. For a moment it seemed like Sans had his other self completely trapped, but without even moving an inch, the larger skeleton smirked and disappeared. The oxygen in the room became thinner as the Fell vanished from inside his bone prison and almost instantly reappeared behind his small, blue counterpart.

Sensing trouble, Sans repeated the sliding maneuver he had used against you earlier, just barely slipping away from a wide swipe from the skeleton behind him. With a dark laugh, an army of magical red bones rose from the floor, each rushing at Sans at different speeds and heights. He dodged each one stoically, carefully watching his opponent's every move. For once he seemed almost… professional? It was like he had entered some kind of trance, his blue and gold eye never straying from the giant red monster.

As each bone missed their target they shattered and left horrible burn marks all over the walls and sparse furniture. You stood on wobbling legs and threw yourself out of the way of an incoming attack, barely dodging a red bone before it hit the wall next to you and exploded, leaving a pitch black scar over its surface. The air was thick with the smell of smoke and sulfur, and you hacked from the discomfort in your lungs. It certainly didn't help that you could feel the familiar creep of a concussion slowly overtaking you.

Kneeling on your hands and knees, you tried to stave off the dizziness and sudden urge to vomit. You were so preoccupied with your incoming nausea that you didn't even notice when the Fell stopped targeting his counterpart and turned his burning eyes back to you.

There was a yell from Sans and a tug at your Soul… but it was too little, too late. You screamed at the feeling of your skin burning as you were pointlessly flung backwards, Sans' blue magic making your Soul flicker into being before you for just a second before it disappeared into your chest again. The glowing red shards of the magical bone dug into your skin just a little bit deeper before disappearing, making way for your blood to sluggishly pool out from the wounds. You grit your teeth against the pain as you lay on your back, clutching at your arm and twitching your seared leg on the same side. The sharp stabs of your nerves lighting up in agony wasn't completely intolerable, but the sensation of your flesh being charred had caught you horribly off guard.

"shi- no-! ah! let me go you-! _ngh_!"

"heh... 's yer own fault fer gettin' distracted by yer lil pet, _pal_."

As you squinted through unfocused eyes you saw Sans being held tightly against the torso of his Fell version. A single arm was all it took to wrap around him completely and keep him pinned with his legs dangling helplessly. With a snicker, the larger Sans looked down at you and shoved a sharp finger straight into your Sans eye socket, causing him to gasp and stiffen. Something hot and angry flared inside of you at the sight, and you tried to stand despite the steep tilting of the floor.

"you'd better stay down, _human_ ," the Fell sneered at you, "'less ya want yer pipsqueak friend over 'ere to 'ave half his face ripped offa his skull."

You growled in response, but flopped back onto your side regardless, cradling your burnt arm. Under normal circumstances there was about a fifty-fifty chance that you could beat a Sans like the one threatening you, which wasn't the best odds when you thought about it, but you were too injured to fight anyway. All you could do was watch with a harsh glare as the Fell chuckled, slowly dragging his clawed thumb along the inside of Sans' skull, making him sweat nervously. You could hear the faint grinding sound it made from all the way down on the floor, and you felt something raw spread through you along with your nausea and the pain of your fresh wounds.

"now, you two 're gonna tell me _exactly_ how ya got inta my room and what you were doin' 'ere while i was-"

 _ **BAM**_

The door exploded open, chips of wood and shattered chains flying everywhere.

"SANS WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING UP HERE TO CAUSE SUCH A GOD AWFUL RACKET!?"

"aw fer fuck's sake boss, _again_?"

The larger Sans seemed incredibly offput as he stared down at the remnants of his bedroom door, forlornly watching the last swings of the shattered wood still clinging desperately to the twisted hinges.

"SHUT IT!" screamed the newcomer (obviously Papyrus), who had practically body slammed his way through the door just to scold the other skeleton, "I WOULDN'T HAVE TO KICK DOWN YOUR DOOR EVERY TIME IF YOU DIDN'T SO OBSESSIVELY LOCK IT! WHO HAS THE TIME TO REMOVE SO MANY CHAINS? I CERTAINLY DONT! MY TIME IS FAR TOO PRECIOUS A COMMODITY FOR ME TO WASTE IT ON YOUR COMPULSIVE HABITS!" You could see the other skeleton had more to say, but his rant was cut short when he suddenly spotted Sans and yourself.

"YOU TWO AGAIN!?" he screeched, his voice increasing in pitch along with his disbelief, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? I THOUGHT I LOCKED YOU AWAY!"

"... ya know these two, boss?" the Fell Sans asked incredulously.

"OF COURSE I DO YOU NITWIT! DO YOU HONESTLY THINK THAT I WOULD ACT AS IF I KNEW THEM IF THEY WERE STRANGERS?" The large Sans simply stood in silence as the other skeleton stomped on the floorboards angrily, scattering shrapnel everywhere. But the thin skeleton's rage at his brother didn't distract him from you completely, and very quickly he turned back to the task at hand.

"NOW, JUST HOW DID YOU TWO MANAGE TO GET OUT OF THE INESCAPABLE CAGE I PUT YOU IN? YOU'D BETTER TELL ME NOW OR I'LL HAVE TO PRY THE INFORMATION OUT OF YOU!"

Neither Sans nor you spoke up as the tall skeleton glared at you, his piercing eyes demanding answers. The longer you remained silent, the more irritated Papyrus seemed to get, and, oddly, the more the Fell Sans' smile tightened.

The big guy's attention was no longer fully on you and your Sans anymore. Instead he seemed upset, maybe even angry at his brother's presence. His tight features and twitching eye practically screamed " _Get the fuck OUT!_ ". Not that the thinner of the two had noticed that or anything. Or perhaps he had and just didn't care.

"ya know… i was just gettin' to askin' 'em those questions myself," the Fell Sans finally ground out with a hint of irritation in his voice, "and since we're in _my_ room, which ya should probably know _they_ broke into…"

"AND JUST WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO HINT AT?" the other skeleton yelled, immediately furious at his brother's weak attempt at shooing him out, "DO YOU THINK THAT JUST BECAUSE THESE TWO FOOLS BROKE INTO _YOUR_ ROOM WHILE _NEITHER_ OF US WERE HOME AND DID _WHO KNOWS WHAT_ IN HERE AND _OBVIOUSLY_ TRIED TO FIGHT YOU SO THEY COULD ESCAPE, THAT _YOU_ WOULD BE THE ONE TO QUESTION THEM?!"

"... yea, pretty much."

"WELL TOO BAD! GET YOUR OWN PRISONERS! I HAD THESE ONES FIRST!"

With that declaration out of the way, the loud skeleton took long strides towards you, looking at threatening as possible as he did so. Ignoring the unpleasant twist of your charred skin, you hissed and forced yourself to stand. You'd be damned if you let either of the two edgy assholes kill you without getting a few swings in first.

As Papyrus approached, you threw a punch with your good arm, barely scraping him as he twisted and grabbed you by the neck. Your back was slammed back against the wall and you hissed as your head throbbed from the impact. Ah. You could tell he had practiced that maneuver many times from its almost mechanical execution. That was bad news. Your whole prideful 'last stand' thing would have to be put on hold.

"don't-!" Sans yelled from the other side of the room, trying unsuccessfully to struggle out of his counterpart's grip.

"shh, better keep it quiet pal," the bigger Sans hissed lowly as he twisted his thumb in the other's eye socket, "dun worry, you'll get yer turn later. just dun make this worse than it hazta be, a'ight? it'll be over before ya know it."

You gasped painfully as your throat was constricted by a red gloved hand, your legs scraping against the wall as your hands weakly gripped at the limb holding you pinned. The shear surface area that a whole hand could cover was slightly more uncomfortable than the strings you were used to, but at least the stinging from having your flesh sliced into couldn't be recreated by the coarse fabric of a glove. Still, you didn't really like being strangled. It always made your eyes water and your throat hurt for ages afterwards.

"UGH! DISGUSTING!" Papyrus sneered, staring at your burnt arm and gagging at the blood that was seeping onto him, "HOW DID YOU BECOME SUCH A MESS IN THE SHORT TIME I WAS GONE? WHAT IS THIS UNGODLY RED STUFF YOU ARE COVERED IN!?"

You couldn't have responded even if you wanted to thanks to the grip around your throat. Unfortunately that was a huge problem, since being unable to speak also made you unable to lie. You knew that if the thin skeleton figured out that the 'red stuff' you were dripping on him was blood, then you would be in serious trouble. Not many monster types 'bled', and if they did it was usually unique, like it being blue or black or bone marrow. You had no doubts that your neck would be snapped and your Soul taken if the thin skeleton could put two and two together, which you pretty were against at the moment because you would prefer to be _dead_ when you died, not trapped as a floating heart to be used for god knows what.

All it would take was for the skeleton's (literally) big brother to reveal what he'd already figured out by chance.

But the Fell Sans kept his mouth shut at his brother's questioning, keeping your human nature hidden behind tight lips. Well, figuratively speaking at least. Instead of revealing the truth about your species, the Fell Sans opened his mouth and a long, red, tendril-like tongue slid out. He seemed to contemplate something for a second, casting you a quick glare before...

" _urk!_ "

Sans' eyes went pitch black as the magical red tongue slithered over his skull, collecting the sauce that you had dripped onto his temple and leaving a thick layer of translucent red slime and a lifetime of trauma in its wake.

"'s ketchup," the Fell Sans declared with a smirk, enjoying the way the smaller skeleton was trying not to retch.

Meanwhile you were staring in wide-eyed confusion. He… lied? Well, it wasn't exactly a lie, you _were_ covered in the sticky sauce, but the Fell Sans knew full well that the stuff running down your arm should be blood. Hell, he had inflicted the wound on you himself! He'd even outright _called you a human!_ Surely he should know that the specific red liquid grossing out his bro wasn't the same as ketchup. Unless perhaps humans didn't bleed in his reality?

However, you quickly abandoned that theory as the big skeleton caught your eye and winked at you. He winked at you! He _knew_ he was lying to his brother and he let you know it! What the _hell_? Did that mean he was protecting you? But he'd been trying to kill you not even two minutes ago! What kind of game was he playing?!

This was exactly why you thought all Sanses were manipulative _bastards_.

"WHAT!? KETCHUP?" screamed Papyrus, ignorant to your silent interactions, "UN. BE. LIEVABLE! TO THINK THAT YOU WOULD NOT ONLY COMMIT SUCH A DESPICABLE AND REVOLTING CRIME ONCE, BUT ALSO REPEAT IT _AFTER_ I HAD ARRESTED YOU! THE DEPTHS OF YOUR DEPRAVITY ARE HONESTLY UNFATHOMABLE!" The hand around your throat tightened the angrier the tall skeleton became, until you could feel your eyes rolling back into your head against your will. At this rate the Fell's lie wouldn't do you any good, since you were on the road to being strangled to death on accident anyway. "YOU MEDDLING TEENS MUST BE THE REASON THAT MY FRIDGE MYSTERIOUSLY BECAME SO DISORGANISED!"

You couldn't even feel the drool slipping down your chin as you began to get lost in the feeling of your own lightheadedness. With the old classical combination of concussion and strangulation, you knew it wouldn't be much longer until you passed out. After that you would just have to hope you were released before you managed to die from lack of air. You didn't want the idiot to choke you to death just to trap you in spirit by getting his pompous hands on your Soul.

Then, through the haze and the building dread, a voice spoke up, uttering a single, solitary sentence that cut through everything else.

"h-heh… caught _red-handed_ …"

The pun was barely even above a mutter, but it was still audible enough to hear. The pressure on your neck increased tenfold at the weak joke, and you wondered if your head would either explode or be separated from your shoulders from the force.

Very suddenly, you were dropped to the floor and your lungs burned as air flooded back into your system. You hacked and coughed violently, unsightly bubbles of drool running down your chin as you focussed on the simple and underappreciated process of breathing. Above you, the tall, rage-filled skeleton was repeating the same process he had in the forest; from seemingly registering the joke, to obviously attempting to deny he'd heard it, followed by trying and failing to keep his calm… all until he finally _exploded into a bright red beacon of_ _ **unbridled fury**_ _._

" _WHO SAID IT? WHICH ONE OF YOU SAID_ _ **THE THING**_ _!?_ "

Literal flames were billowing out of Papyrus' eye sockets from sheer rage as he turned and stared down the two skeletons across the room. The Fell Sans seemed a bit surprised at first, staring down at his smaller self with a slightly amused looking grin, before shrugging with a casual "wasn't me, boss."

The deadly glare of the tall skeleton then shifted directly onto Sans, who was sweating profusely and giggling from nerves. His eye lights shrunk and wobbled as he watched the other monster's anger rise to even more intense heights, no doubt regretting his decision to trade his life for a bad joke opportunity. Seriously, you couldn't believe that he had repeated the same mistake _twice_! Maybe even thrice if you counted the encounter with Mettaton. Did he have no sense in his skull at all?

"HOLD HIM STILL SANS. THIS TIME I'M GOING TO KILL HIM."

"...'aight, no prob."

"w-wait! y-ya don't have t-to _kill_ me!" Sans frantically stuttered as the enraged skeleton stalked forward slowly with murder in his eyes, "it was just a stupid joke! no hard feelings or anythin'! it was j-just- just a… oh shit…"

A bright red bone was summoned in the tall skeleton's hand as he loomed over Sans' head. One edge of the summoned weapon was sharp and jagged, as though the bone had been shattered against something and only a deadly, saw-like edge was left behind. Even the Fell Sans looked a little nervous about the weapon as he tried to stop your Sans from squirming out of his grip. The sharp bone was long enough to skewer the both of them if the furious monster felt like it.

"I HOPE THAT THE OTHER TROUBLESOME TEENAGERS IN THE FOREST LEARN THEIR LESSON ONCE THEY DISCOVER THEIR FRIENDS HAVE GONE MISSING," Papyrus growled lowly as he raised his weapon, an almost tranquil tone flowing through his voice as he literally radiated malice in the form of red magic, "YOUR DUST WILL MAKE A GOOD EXAMPLE WHEN I _THROW IT IN THEIR FACES_."

You watched with wide eyes as the monster prepared to run Sans through with his magic. Panic shot through you as you were about to see the pun-inclined skeleton struck down by the hostile version of his brother for the _second time_ in one day. Except, unlike last time, this time guaranteed death. It would be pathetic if you just stood idly by all over again! But you couldn't fight thanks to your injuries, and a weak distraction would only buy you a few useless seconds until Sans was turned into a shishkebab anyway. You needed something that would discourage the Fell's murderous intentions… Something that would really stick...

Then it hit you; the Perfect Plan™!

"W-wa… it…!" you croaked, voice barely audible due to having the life squeezed out of it, "W-wait…! We… we're not… teens! Those… the teenagers i-in the forest w-won't even play with us! We're j-just kids!"

The room went silent as Papyrus hesitated and you mentally crossed your fingers. There were two ways that he could react to your lie, both depending on what kind of Fell-verse you had ended up in. Either killing children granted bonus EXP and LV, making the action highly beneficial to the universe's twisted residents, or…

" _RRRAAAAAAAGH!_ IS THIS TRUE? YOU'RE ACTUALLY CHILDREN!?"

"Y-yes!" you lied, the strained squeaking of your voice helping your acting along nicely, "Please… w-we're so sorry! We we're just h-hungry and wanted to play… Don't kill us!"

The tall skeleton growled at your whimpering, the magical bone still sharp and dangerous in his hand. "IF YOU ARE ACTUALLY CHILDREN THEN WHERE ARE YOUR STRIPED SHIRTS? ALL CHILDREN WEAR STRIPED SHIRTS!"

Hm, interesting. So that was a rule in their universe. Oh well, it wasn't that uncommon. You'd already prepared an excuse for it.

"W-we took off our stripes so that we c-could play with the teenagers in the forest," you coughed, secretly becoming excited as the pain from using your throat made your eyes water. Ha! You were so convincing right now you could even fool yourself! "B-but even when we had adult clothes, the t-teens wouldn't let us play with them…!"

The Fell Sans growled, and you could tell that he could easily see through your lies. And yet he didn't say anything… How odd. He obviously had some hidden motives by not revealing your human nature, but he apparently didn't mind letting your Sans be killed. Thankfully, to kill one of you would reveal your lie, so you were fairly confident the Fell wouldn't act up just yet. You didn't like whatever he was planning.

As his brother tapped his chin and looked down, clearly absorbed in thought, you matched the big skeleton's glare, almost taunting him with your defiant gaze.

"CHILDREN… I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS…" Papyrus muttered angrily at the floor. He seemed conflicted. Huffing, he turned to his brother.

"WELL? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS? YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO SEE IF THEY ARE LYING, SHOULDN'T YOU?"

"it dun work like that, boss..." the big Sans grumbled in response, seemingly exasperated by his brother's unknown assumption.

"WELL THEN WHAT GOOD ARE YOU FOR!?" the thinner skeleton screeched in outrage, "JUST TELL ME IF THEY ARE LIARS DESERVING OF PUNISHMENT OR NOT!"

Red eye lights flickered back to you for a moment, and it almost seemed as though the big guy would spill the beans. Luckily, he relaxed and continued to smile, removing his finger from Sans' eye socket to pinch 'playfully' at his cheek. You were slightly impressed as Sans managed to hold back a pained hiss, keeping his strained smile in perfect place.

"heh… well, guess they must be kids then. 'splains the soft edges, yeah?"

"HMM, OF COURSE! THAT IS EASY TO SEE!" Papyrus nodded in agreement, _finally_ dissipating the sharp bone in his hand, "IT ALSO EXPLAINS THEIR PENCHANT FOR MAKING STUPID DECISIONS THAT WILL GET THEM MURDERED HORRIBLY! VERY WELL! WE MUST LOCATE THEIR PARENTAL UNITS AND RETURN THEM IMMEDIATELY WITH A MINIMUM FIVE PARAGRAPH DOCUMENT DETAILING THEIR FAILING PARENTAGE!"

"uh, yeah… good luck with that…" Sans muttered under his breath as his cheek was released.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, SMALL SKELETON CHILD?"

You watched as Sans twitched at being called 'small' and 'child' by someone who was technically his own brother. He'd have to cut that shit out if he wanted to uphold the lie you had so graciously come up with to save his life.

"oh it's nothing…" he chuckled nervously, trying to brush off his comment as unimportant and failing, "just, um, ya might not be able ta find anyone… considerin'... er…"

"Our entire families were murdered," you explained calmly. And it was an easy lie to tell too, since it was actually the truth. Fuckin' Error.

"WHAT? EVEN YOUR PARENTS?!" the Fell skeleton screeched, "THAT'S NOT ALLOWED! CHILDREN AND THEIR LEGAL PARENTS AREN'T TO BE KILLED UNDER THE REPOPULATION MERCY LAW! HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO REPLENISH OUR NUMBERS IF PARENTS AREN'T GIVEN THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO BEAR AND RAISE CHILDREN IN THIS HELL-HOLE? IF YOU WANTED TO MURDER SOMEONE THEN YOU COULD JUST PICK SOME USELESS, UN-MATED SCUM OFF THE STREET! WHAT A COMPLETE WASTE!"

Papyrus scoffed loudly as you hid a smug smile. You had been lucky that the Fell-verse was one with a dwindling population. All that murder usually had consequences, and those consequences usually came in the form of a dying race of monsters. That was why, while some Fells were extremely eager to dust any kids stupid enough to wander around alone, others were highly protective of them, even going so far as to kill or torture anyone who so much as hurt a child or their guardians. That rule didn't apply to teenagers or adults without kids, though. Those guys were free game. And it _certainly_ didn't apply to humans, no matter their age.

"WELL THIS IS ACTUALLY QUITE THE RARE OPPORTUNITY!" Papyrus suddenly smiled, his sharp teeth making the action far more malicious than intended, "IF YOU HAVE NO LEGAL GUARDIANS LEFT ALIVE, THEN IT WOULD BE HIGHLY BENEFICIAL TO SIMPLY ADOPT THE TWO OF YOU!"

"what?! paps, ya can't just-"

" **WHATDIDYOUJUSTCALLME!?** "

"... _boss_ ," the Fell Sans repeated carefully, "ya can't jus' pick up a pair o' brats off tha street an' say they're yours. 'sides, ya can't be in tha royal guard an' be a guardian ta a kid at tha same time. if ya have a brat ta look after then ya hafta keep yerself outta anywhere ta do wit fightin'."

"YES, YOU ARE COMPLETELY CORRECT FOR ONCE!" the thinner skeleton smiled twistedly, looming over his brother in a way that revealed he was just a couple of inches higher than his Sans, "AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHY _YOU_ WILL BE THE ONE TO SIGN ALL THE PAPERWORK! IF YOU ALONE ARE REGISTERED AS THEIR GUARDIAN THEN _I_ CAN CONTINUE TO CLIMB RANK IN THE ROYAL GUARD!"

"w- wait, what?" You watched as the Fell Sans spluttered in confusion and outrage at his brother's suggestion. Never had you seen a situation turned around so hard on someone. Even Sans- the smaller, bluer one tucked under the Fell's arm- seemed both surprised and amused by the new development, so much so that you could see him desperately trying to restrain his laughter.

"ya can't be _serious!_ " the Fell hissed, his skull scrunching from the sheer thought of becoming your 'guardian', "these two- ya can't just- i dun even _like_ kids!"

"IT'S NOT A MATTER OF LIKE OR DISLIKE, YOU INCOMPETENT SACK OF SWEAT! IT'S THE LEGAL INCOME! WITH A PAIR OF CHILDREN UNDER YOUR NAME, WE CAN REAP ALL THE BENEFITS OF A GOVERNMENT-GIFTED PARENTAL ALLOWANCE!"

"ya know those things aren't actually all that big, right?"

"IT WOULD BE MORE THAN YOU EARN BY SITTING AT YOUR POST AND SLEEPING ALL DAY! YOU SHOULD BE JUMPING FOR JOY AT THIS CHANCE I AM GIVING YOU TO INDULGE YOUR LAZY HABITS!"

"i do more than you'll ever fuckin' know, you ungrateful-"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY? I CAN'T HEAR YOU WHEN YOU MUMBLE LIKE THAT! TRY _ENUNCIATING_ , YOU CLOD!"

"i said yer right. i do nothin'. nothin' at all."

"EXACTLY! I AM ALWAYS RIGHT!" Papyrus grinned victoriously, the conversation obviously over. The Fell Sans was grumbling darkly, his sharp smile more of a bitter sneer as he stared angrily into the corner of the room. You couldn't help but mentally pat yourself on the back for how well things had worked out in your favour. The next step was tricking the pair into leaving you alone with Sans so that you two could 'fly the coop', so to say.

"AND WHILE YOU SIT AROUND DOING NOTHING WITH THESE TWO, I WILL CONTINUE TO FORMULATE A PLAN FOR DEALING WITH THAT BRICK-HEADED FISH! NYA HA HA!"

Papyrus laughed heartily as he strode out through the remnants of his brother's destroyed door, confident in the genius of his plan.

It was barely three seconds after he left that the Fell Sans shoved his clawed fingers straight back into Sans' eye socket and teleported over to you, stomping a foot over the lower half of your face so your yelp was muffled against the floor.

"so, anyway," he hissed angrily down at you as he twisted his fingers mercilessly in Sans' skull, "no matter what kinda shit ya tricked inta my bro's thick skull, you two still hafta explain-"

" **SANS**!" Papyrus' voice screeched from the beneath the floor you were being ground into, "YOU'D BETTER BE DOWN HERE WITHIN THE NEXT FIVE SECONDS BEFORE I HAVE TO COME BACK UP THERE AND THROW YOU DOWN THE STAIRS MYSELF! THOSE LITTLE BRATS ARE FILTHY THANKS TO YOUR PIG STY OF A ROOM AND NEED TO BE WASHED IMMEDIATELY! AND SINCE YOU'RE GOING TO BE LOOKING AFTER THEM YOU'D BETTER START ACTING PARENT-Y BY GETTING ON THAT _RIGHT NOW_!"

A string of hissed and whispered expletives flowed out of the Fell's mouth like a deadly gas leak before he finally shouted "whateva ya say, boss!"

You squeezed your eyes shut as the heavy sneaker over your head pressed down and twisted before finally lifting. Next to you, Sans was dropped with little ceremony, grunting as his bones clanked against the hard wooden floor.

"well, _kids_ ," the Fell Sans grit out through a strained and deadly sharp smile, "it looks like yer gonna be spendin' some quality time with yer _uncle sans_ fer awhile…heh heh."

* * *

...

...

...

Said Sans "it was just a pun, bro!"


	16. Delete Failed: 526561646572

I keep getting comments that say how funny and ridiculous my story is, so here's a Chapter I literally wrote in a day.

...

...

...

* * *

"Think you could get us out of here now?"

"uh, no, actually… funny thing, but somethin' about that guy's teleport kinda, sorta... messed me up a bit… sorry."

You groaned quietly in frustration. After a short screaming match between the two Fell brothers and the floor separating them, both you and Sans were literally dragged down the stairs and left standing awkwardly in the living room. The Fell Sans then disappeared somewhere, leaving you alone with the ominous sounds of smashing and crashing echoing out from the depths of the kitchen.

It was the perfect opportunity to escape! Or it would have been if Sans hadn't started scratching feverishly at his bones, complaining about a burning feeling that he couldn't shake off ever since the Fell had taken him along for his quick teleport onto your face. You told him to buck up and deal, but he just kept scratching miserably, repeatedly apologising and saying that it was too dangerous to teleport you both through the void while he was so distracted.

"Well we can't just leave through the front door. Papyrus is _right there_!" you gestured towards the kitchen angrily just as another small explosion occurred. You didn't know what was going on in there, but from the sounds of it the dark skeleton was probably trying to summon some kind of lovecraftian abomination. It would be pretty great if you could get outta there before he succeeded.

"i know, but if i take a shortcut through the void like _this_ we'll just end up crushed and atomized," Sans explained in an angry whisper as he sat down on the floor and clawed at his legs, desperately trying to satiate his relentless itch, "i can't focus enough on my blue magic to keep us safe. all our particles would be ripped apart from the extreme gravity on entry- maybe even exit- and even if we _did_ make it in there safe 'n' sound, we could end up stuck or somethin'! and i'm not talkin' a stuck where we get ripped into our base components and dragged back to this 'verse's source, i'm talkin' an _anti-void_ kinda stuck where we can't go _anywhere_."

… Well fuck. You didn't really care about all the other scientific stuff, but the idea of being trapped in a space like the anti-void again was more than enough to deter you from pushing Sans any further on the subject.

"Well… if we can't do that, then… maybe we should risk taking my Soul out right here?"

Actually, you weren't very keen on that idea, even though you were the one suggesting it. The way that the other Sans had stared at your Soul when he'd realised you were human was still a major concern for you. You had no idea what could have possibly been going through the big guy's mind when he lied to his brother, and you didn't want to find out. But you also didn't want Papyrus to suddenly step out of the kitchen and see your vulnerable human Soul floating about near his couch, all strung up like a finely plucked duck ready for sale.

Even Sans, who had a massive bias towards the guy despite _almost being killed by him_ _ **twice**_ , didn't think it was a good idea, and flashed you a strained smile that spoke volumes about his confidence.

Jeez, you were really running out of ideas…

"What about _your_ Soul then? Can you bring out your Soul at all?"

"what? no." Sans scrunched his skull in confusion, peering up at you sideways as he reached to scratch his back, "i'm a _monster_. my soul won't survive outta my body, an' my body will crumble without my soul. only humans can have their souls out for more than a couple seconds and keep livin'."

"Shit. And here I was, thinking that you'd drawn all the best cards the multiverse could give… 'Course you had to have a flaw somewhere."

"what?"

Huffing, you waved your hand lazily to show you were done with the conversation. Sans merely raised a brow at you before cursing and immediately returning to raking his fingers over his body. It was kind of disappointing. Thanks to his unexpected durability against attacks, lack of lingering surface wounds, and frankly, pretty amazing recovery from every injury he'd received thus far, you'd hoped that Sans could've pulled off a royal flush by being able to withdraw his Soul as well. Some monsters could do it easily, others couldn't, it all depended on what kind of universe they were from. And apparently your Sans was one of the types who simply couldn't do it under any circumstances. What a shame.

If one of the brothers unexpectedly walked in and saw a monster Soul instead of a human one, you could've made up some kind of lame excuse to cover up your escape attempt. But since Sans couldn't withdraw his Soul without dying, and exposing your human Soul around monsters was just a bad idea in general, there was no way for you two to perform an 'emergency exit'. Until Sans could teleport and grant you some distance from the deadly duo, you were pretty much stuck with the Fells until further notice.

Sometime during your bitter thought process, you saw slight movement out of the corner of your eye. Curious and paranoid, you turned your head towards one of the windows, glaring out at the muck-filled snow.

Huh. It was odd, but for a moment you thought you'd seen a tiny pale face lurking just outside the glass, looking in at you with dark eyes. Whoever or whatever it had been it was gone the instant you looked over at it. It was likely to be a passing monster, probably just spying on their weird skeleton neighbours to document their weaknesses. From what you'd learned in the past, that was something crazy, murderous Fells often did. But that wasn't your problem. As long as you left the edgy murder-verse as fast as you could, no creepy, window-peeping monsters would be able to kill-

 **Splash!**

" _What the fuck-!?_ "

Deep, dark chuckles rose up from behind you and you turned to glare furiously at the large Sans who had silently returned while you were distracted. He stared down at you and your Sans with a wicked grin, a large basin hanging from his hands, still dripping some of the freezing cold water that he had just tossed on you without warning. If it wasn't already clear what he thought of your situation before, then this really made his opinion of you clear.

"Y-you _asshole_ ," you hissed through already chattering teeth. Though you had only recently become reaquainted with it, you were beginning to _loathe_ the cold. The Fell Sans couldn't have possibly known your dreadful experiences with it over the past couple of hours, but dropping a gallon of freezing water over someone's head was still a pretty shitty thing to do. Your Sans didn't seem that bothered about it though, too busy scratching and whining pathetically under his breath to pay attention to his soaked clothes.

In response to the sudden noise (how he heard it over his own racket in the first place was a mystery), Papyrus stuck his pointy head around the kitchen doorframe and started screaming.

"SANS? WHAT IN THE NAME OF ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING ARE YOU DOING!?"

"cleanin' up tha brats, boss" came the Fell's casual reply.

"ARE YOU COMPLETELY INCOMPETENT!? THAT IS _NOT_ HOW YOU WASH CHILDREN!" the skeleton screeched, and you for once you agreed with hi- "NEXT TIME TAKE THEM OUTSIDE BEFORE YOU USE THE BUCKET! YOU COULD DAMAGE THE TV!"

"gotcha, boss."

… You couldn't wait to get back to the anti-void.

After a lot of standing and shivering and constantly cursing under your breath, the Fell Sans grabbed you and Sans a large towel which he dumped haphazardly over your heads. Even when you were (mostly) dry, Papyrus was still not pleased with your damp clothes and ordered his brother to fetch both of you something else to wear. That very nearly sparked another fight as the Fell tried to take your clothes, and you in turn tried to take out one of his teeth.

Like hell you were just going to give anyone your stuff! Even if they were tattered and torn and waterlogged, the only things you had to your name were _literally_ just the clothes on your back. If the big guy wanted your coat, shirt, shorts, or fluffy lil feeties, he would have to fight you for them!

In the end he managed to overpower you by grabbing your injured arm and twisting it until you finally promised to get changed "like a good _human"_. Even Sans stopped his scratching for a moment just to tell you to go along with it, and that your life wasn't worth a few scraps of cloth. You would have begged to differ, but then you were shoved into a linen closet and told you had five minutes to get changed before the Fell ripped your clothes off himself and locked you outside until you learned to follow orders.

The clothes you were given were obviously too large for anyone even remotely human. The turtleneck was a lot like the one the Fell Sans had already been wearing, and it easily reached past your knees, flowing over your body like a blanket that had been loosely stapled around your frame. You had to admit that the long red sleeves were a pretty smart choice, since your arm was still bleeding sluggishly and looked pretty disgusting (not at all helped by the way Fell Sans had twisted it when he told you to get changed). You could easily hide the wounds from Papyrus until you either fixed them or escaped. Aside from that it took a bit of pulling and tugging to keep the deep blue shorts tight around your waist, but you managed to sort it out before your five minutes were up. By the end of it all you looked really odd and tiny- like a _child_ even- and you were practically swimming in the absurd amount of cloth surrounding you. You briefly wondered why you hadn't been given any of Papyrus' clothes instead of his brother's absurdly giant ones, but then you realised you'd probably have to be dead for six months before you could fit in them. Dude was thin as hell.

Sans was given something a little bit different from you. First his white shirt and blue jacket were replaced by a pretty big sleeveless top (though not quite as big as your turtleneck) which read "I'm with stupid" and had an arrow pointing to the left. However, the 'with' had been crossed out in permanent marker, so really it just read "I'm stupid". His pants weren't even real pants, but fluffy black pajama bottoms covered in printed bones. Everything he was given smelled heavily of mothballs, and you guessed that the stuff had been pulled out of storage because literally nothing else would fit the guy. The Fells probably hadn't dealt with anyone as small as him since they themselves were baby bones, which was probably why Sans' new clothes had been tucked away for so long.

But fashion disasters aside, you and Sans ended up forcefully seated around a table where the only discernible centerpiece was a single, chocolate-sprinkle covered rock. You didn't know what was happening at first, but when Sans suddenly stiffened and his Fell counterpart stole a chair and made himself comfortable, well, saying you were worried was an understatement.

"HERE WE ARE! YOU SNOT-NOSED LITTLE ORPHANS HAD BETTER APPRECIATE THIS WONDERFUL, HOME-COOKED MEAL!" Papyrus announced loudly as he practically slammed two plates of lasagna in front of you, "I'LL BET YOU DON'T GET THIS KIND OF QUALITY FOOD WHEN YOU ARE OUT ON THE STREETS, BEGGING FOR SCRAPS LIKE WORTHLESS ANIMALS!"

You stared down at your plate with a suspicious expression. The presentation of the lasagna was beautiful, professional even, and seemed to shine on your plate. However, a critical eye could see that the shining was actually pieces of glass which had been shattered and spread throughout the 'meat', and no amount of garnishing could excuse the _smell_ that was wafting off of the disguised abomination. Monster food might've had fantastic healing properties, but even though your arm and leg were charred and sticking to the inside of your clothes, you did _not_ want to eat the thing that was mimicking lasagna on your plate. Even Sans momentarily stopped his itching and wriggling to stare nervously at his 'food', as though moving might reveal it to be an enemy just waiting to attack him.

"well? dun be rude, _kids_ ," the Fell Sans chuckled deeply, watching you eagerly from a safe distance away, "go 'head an' eat up yer boss' dinner! he worked so hard on it for ya~"

You could practically feel Papyrus' imminent anger prickling against your neck as you stared down at the innocent looking, but likely deadly, dish. Of the many times you had wondered if you were going to die since meeting Sans, this was the most ridiculous situation of all. Either you ate a glass-littered, obviously poisoned plate of mystery meat and pasta sheets, or you let the tall skeleton behind you bludgeon you to death for being rude.

You honestly could not believe that you had reached such a low. Already you wanted to just curl up and go back to sleep again.

But you picked up your fork regardless, uncertain of what horrors your decision might lead you to experiencing, and tried your best to wrestle a tiny forkful of the lasagna away from the rest of its possibly sentient mass. You aimed to get as little of the glass shards as possible, keeping your fork steady as you held your breath and prepared yourself for the worst.

When the substance finally hit your mouth you immediately decided that only the most twisted of horror novel authors could possibly describe it, and it took everything in your power not to spit the horrid beast back out. The only thing that scared you more than the taste and texture was the idea of swallowing the stuff. Just one bite and you could already feel your tounge being torn to ribbons by the tiny glass shards, the copper tang of blood no where near enough to drown out the 'flavour' of the 'food'. You didn't want that feeling raking its way down your throat too… but you couldn't just spit it out again! Not when you had come so far!

Robbed of any other option, you sat as still as a statue, hoping beyond hope that a miracle might occur to save you from your torture.

Eventually, _thankfully_ , the magical properties of the food kicked in and it began to disappear. Even the glass began to dissolve into your mouth, though much slower than the rest of the… _stuff_. As it vanished you felt a tiny bit of your wounds heal over, just enough to stop your sluggish bleeding, and the cuts in your mouth disappeared just as quickly as they'd been inflicted. Only a slimy, foreboding feeling was left to twist and roll throughout your body, lingering like an evil curse. Even though it had patched you up slightly, you dared not take another bite, lest the first one was a fluke.

"WELL? AREN'T YOU GOING TO FINISH IT? IT'S RUDE TO NOT EAT ALL OF YOUR FOOD!"

You shuddered in dread as you heard Papyrus' threatening voice right behind you. He wanted you to eat the _whole thing_? Nah. Nope. You'd rather take the beating.

Thankfully Sans, who was just as disturbed as you after taking a tentative bite from his plate (though you never actually _saw_ him do it), swooped in and saved the day.

"ah, y-yeah. it was g-great! but… y-ya know, we're just lil kids an' all… c-can't fit this much, uh, f-food( _?_ ) in us…"

"HMM. I SUPPOSE IT MAKES SENSE! MONSTERS AS YOUNG AND FEEBLE AS YOU COULDN'T POSSIBLY FIT THIS MUCH CULINARY GOODNESS INTO YOUR TINY, TINY BODIES ALL AT ONCE!"

"... _yep_."

You had no idea if the pitch blackness of Sans' eyes was a reaction to being called tiny or another symptom of the foreign substance you had both consumed. It was difficult to tell which was which, but you knew that either way the sweating skeleton was definitely dying somewhere behind his painfully tight smile.

"ALRIGHT THEN! I WILL PUT THE REST IN THE FRIDGE AND YOU CAN HAVE MORE TOMORROW!" the tall skeleton smiled smugly, lifting the putrid dishes away again with a flourish, "AT THE RATE YOU'RE EATING THEM IT SHOULD TAKE YOU EXACTLY TWO AND A HALF MONTHS TO FINISH EVERY BITE! FANTASTIC! THAT MEANS THE GRANTS WE SHALL SOON RECEIVE WONT HAVE TO BE WASTED ON YOUR MEALS! WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT PICKING TWO RANDOM CHILDREN OFF THE STREETS WOULD END UP BEING SO PROFITABLE?"

The smiling skeleton then marched his way back into the kitchen, practically humming to himself out of soon as Papyrus left, his brother chuckled heartily at your misery.

"what's wrong?" he snickered as he stared at you with mirthful red eyes, "think maybe ya've gone an' _bitten' off more than ya can chew_?"

Beside you, Sans laughed quietly at the pun. Well, you say laughed, but it was more of a delirious giggle. His eyes were still pitch black voids, and sweat practically cascaded down his face as he scratched weakly at his ribs. Meanwhile, your head had found its way to the tabletop, and you wondered if you could possibly start vomiting even though monster food dissolved into magic and your last non-magical meal had become a long forgotten dream.

Oh _god_. You needed to get out of this universe _yesterday_.

"ALL RIGHT," Papyrus came screaming back into the room, "YOU'VE BEEN FED! NOW IT'S BED TIME! THAT MEANS YOU TWO HAVE TO GO TO SLEEP AND NOT BOTHER US UNTIL I SAY IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP AGAIN! UNDERSTOOD?"

"Yep." "y-yeah…"

"I SAID "UNDERSTOOD"!?"

Your stomach did flips as you were suddenly ripped from your chair and spun around to face the angry monster shouting at you like a sergeant before a battle. Sans nearly topped over beside you, his ribcage visibly drenched and heaving past the low hanging cut of his collar. You were actually starting to worry that he was going to pass out…

"SANS!" For a moment the shout caused your Sans to snap his head up, but it quickly lulled again as soon as his counterpart replied "yeh, boss?"

"GIVE THESE INCOMPETENT CHILDREN AN EXAMPLE! WHAT DO YOU SAY WHEN YOUR BOSS ASKS YOU SOMETHING!?"

"ya say _yes, boss_."

"AND WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN I ORDER YOU TO DO SOMETHING?"

"say _yes, boss_."

"SO WHEN I SAY "DO YOU UNDERSTAND", WHAT SHOULD YOUR REPLY BE?"

" _yes, boss_."

"WELL THEN CHILDREN," Papyrus turned back to you, squeezing both your shoulder and Sans' with an almost bone-shattering grip, " **DO YOU UNDERSTAND?** "

Beside you, Sans made an odd noise before collapsing heavily onto the floor. A moment of silence passed as the three of you stared down at him. When he didn't immediately explode into dust, you straightened up without a hint of any expression on your face and uttered a clear "Yes, Boss."

Very slowly, Papyrus released you and stood back at his full height, right before his skull broke into a wide and pointed grin.

"WELL THEN! IT SEEMS I HAVE ALREADY DECIDED WHICH OF YOU TWO SHALL BE MY FAVOURITE! KEEP UP THE GOOD PERFORMANCE AND YOU MIGHT GET A TREAT!"

And so, with his ego properly tended to, the thin skeleton pat you twice on the head before marching his way upstairs. Sans was left completely unmentioned on the floor, twitching slightly in the corner of your vision.

"SANS! PUT THEM BACK IN THE SHED! IT CAN BE THEIR ROOM UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE! BUT DON'T TAKE ANY LONGER THAN YOU HAVE TO! I WON'T HAVE YOU SLEEPING IN WHEN THERE WILL BE FORMS FOR YOU TO FILL!"

"yes, boss."

With that simple order out of the way, Papyrus entered the room by the staircase, casually slamming his door shut behind him with enough force that the whole house shook. It seemed he had gone to bed, and you got the impression that he wasn't going to come back down again.

As soon as you recovered from your shocked and rigid state, you dropped straight down to your knees and started to pull Sans off the floor. Surprisingly he was still conscious, but he was mumbling incoherently and shaking like a leaf. He looked… really sick actually. Like he was _dying_ even. And that thought immediately made you start to panic.

Shit. _Shit!_ If Sans died now, because of some weird combination of a rough teleport's side effects and a meal straight from Cthulhu's kitchen, then you were _screwed_. You needed him to be around so that he could pull your Soul out of your body and escape this _Fell_ -hole! If he kicked the bucket now, then even _killing_ yourself became a non-option. Any Fell-type monster would eagerly fall all over themselves just to get their hands on your Soul, automatically denying you the real rest you desired- particularly the one who was still in the room with you, grinning widely as you shook the unresponsive bag of bones as hard as you could.

"well, well, well… looks like yer new boss has gone off ta bed. that didn't take long. guess i'm the only one left ta _put ya ta sleep_ , huh?"

Hissing in frustration and panic, you eventually dropped the unresponsive skeleton back onto the floor and stood up to face his much larger counterpart.

The Fell Sans stood up from his chair slowly, the wooden structure creaking as he finally removed his weight from it. You had been healed slightly by the terrible food earlier, but not by much. Your arm was still weakened and your leg on the same side would likely trip you up if you moved too much. He'd already used your wounds against you once to make you get changed, and he'd surely do it again now. You were at a disadvantage against the giant monster, especially since you had no weapons. Without Papyrus keeping an eye on things any more, you were a sitting duck in the face of his brother. Your only real hope was to scream until the other skeleton came back downstairs again.

Just as you started to take a deep breath to start yelling, the air seemed to disappear from your lungs. As the smell of sulfur filled your nostrils you reacted on complete instinct, ducking under a sharp, bony hand as it reached for your face. You twisted and slipped behind the monster as fast as you could, momentarily confusing him after his failed attack.

You attempted to scream a second time, only to find that your lungs had made an error thanks to the weird half-second where the skeleton's teleport had stolen all of your oxygen. Instead of a scream you ended up squeaking and choking, cluing the Fell into just where you had slipped off too.

The Fell Sans swung his left arm out as he turned towards you, summoning a pillar of pointed bones beneath your feet just as you predicted his move and lept backwards to safety.

"heh. maybe boss was right ta pick ya as his favourite _pet_ after all…" he spat as another wave of bones launched at you, each one dragging along the ground and causing steam to rise from the still soaked carpet.

You coughed as you swiftly dodged each incoming attack. It was hard to get your breath back under such a relentless onslaught, but you were slowly managing it. So far the Fell had managed to keep the noise of your battle to a minimum, refusing to use more powerful attacks that could alert his brother to your conflict. All it you needed to do was let loose one singular, solid scream and you could consider yourself safe for a while. The thin one had called you his 'favourite' after all, so seeing his Sans attacking you would probably result in at least _some_ scolding. Anything to buy more time.

With enough air finally returned to your lungs, you threw yourself out of the way of another bone and prepared to scream your throat raw.

Just as you had planted your feet down firmly, the Fell Sans gestured towards you and a flat-ended bone shot up from the floor and nailed you directly in the gut, knocking the wind right out of you again.

Your eyes widened in surprise as all that escaped from your throat was a strained croaking noise and loose strings of drool. The sheer force from the attack caused you to just about double over on yourself. While the bone didn't burn or stab into your flesh like the last one had, it did render you completely silent as you gagged and struggled for air. Unfortunately, all you got was more sulfur.

Before you could gain your bearings again, the Fell was directly in front of you, snatching you up by the jaw so that his bony palm completely covered your mouth. You kicked out weakly at the monster, your range restricted by the throbbing pain from the direct hit to your guts. The skeleton's smile stretched wider, confident in his victory. There was no way you could possibly scream with a pair of concave lungs and a skeletal hand covering half of your face.

"dun worry, i know what yer thinkin'" the Fell purred at you as you scrambled weakly against his hand, "ya think that i'm gonna take yer soul and hand it over ta asgore, dontcha? well, ya can stop thinkin' that right now, 'cause i ain't the same rule-followin' goody-two-shoes that my bro is."

He laughed darkly as he brought your face closer to his, lifting your feet off the ground in the process. His eye sockets had gone black as he stared evilly down at you, a deep red light slowly building in his left eye as he smiled.

"nah, i'm not gonna be like the rest of these mindless drones down here. what i'm plannin' ta do is take yer soul fer myself, then i'm gonna kill that nutty ol' fucker asgore and finally put those souls o' his ta use. ya see, unlike him in 'is big, isolated castle i've seen some shit down here, and unlike him i won't hesitate to use yer soul's power when i finally get it…"

A dark shadow passed over the skeleton's face as he seemed to drift off into his own plot, sneering at nothing in particular as he squeezed your face harshly.

"i've been trapped in this dump for too long. technically even longer than anyone else down 'ere has been. got so fuckin' sick of it… i thought that there'd never be another human down here. 'least not one that i could actually manage to kill. ya have no idea just how much ya made my day just by showin' up, _kid_."

The title was accompanied by a deep chuckle, as though the name itself was some sort of funny joke. But you didn't have much time to question it before your Soul was ripped violently out in front of you, already under the control of the skeleton's restrictive deep blue magic. His smile only grew as he hovered his free hand around the floating heart, scrutinising every detail.

"heh, yer soul's kinda weird lookin' with all these strings everywhere. not that it matters what they do or anythin', just as long as it works like it should."

Oh, so he didn't care about what the strings did, huh? Well, you could _show_ him what they did, whether he wanted to know or _not_. Because if you were _finally_ going to be killed by a murderous skeleton who didn't give a shit about you, then you would like karma to be instantly delivered upon the perpetrator by the exact same means.

With a sudden vengeful energy pumping through your veins, you swiftly reached a hand out towards Error's strings and gave them the most determined tug you could muster, startling the large skeleton slightly with your sudden action. The static took you over instantly, covering your body in its thick, whining mass as you were dragged back into the anti-void. Stark whiteness and cold silence greeted you as you returned back into the realm that had kept you captive for so long. Though you had always hated it when Error was the cause of it, you thoroughly enjoyed the shocked look on the Fell Sans' face as he was dragged through the layers of reality after you, trapped alongside you in your colourless prison.

In his moment of distraction the Fell's grip weakened and you ripped your face out of his grasp. Instantly his eyes were back on you, still murderous, but now with a hint of uncertainty and nerves hidden in their depths.

"Well?" you almost screamed in his face, suddenly smiling ear to ear from a sudden rush of adrenalin and excitement, "Are you gonna do it or what? Just _try_ to kill me! Or were you just talking out your ass the whole time?"

Your heart was pumping at a hundred miles an hour as you floated in front of the confused Fell, grinning like a mad person at the prospect of your life ending. Every other possible method of death you'd encountered so far had been _lame_. Death by cold? Boring! Eaten by a korean-speaking wolf? Weird! Poisoned by terrible cooking? Pathetic!

Getting murdered by a Sans in the anti-void? Well, it wasn't exactly an unexpected turn of events, but you'd always hoped it would happen one day!

As you grinned wide-eyed at the Fell, his confusion turned into anger and he grabbed the billowing folds of your borrowed turtleneck harshly.

" _What the fuck did you do_?" he demanded furiously, eye sockets completely devoid of any light at all, " _Where is this? Where have you taken me?_ "

You knew that the truth would only encourage more questions, and a lie or deflection would end up the same way, so instead you pulled out the line that you had been practicing for the angriest of your 'guests'. It was something cool you had always wanted to say when they ended up trapped with no one else to unleash their anger on but you. Where were you? What kind of place were you in? Of course you knew the answer!

"The place where I'll _die_."

You snickered as you said the line, finally glad to have it out in the open. It sounded so cool and ominous when you said it aloud, even startling the Fell for a split second before his mood switched straight back into an even deeper anger. Good. It was working as intended then.

" _Take me back_." the Fell hissed, eyes still hollow as he twisted his hands even harsher into your borrowed shirt, just enough for it to pinch around your shoulders. You wished he had decided to grab your neck instead. With the pressure he was applying to the red cloth you guessed that he could have easily snapped your neck by this point.

"Can't," you lied smugly, taunting him into even more of a frenzy.

" _like HELL ya can't!_ " the giant skeleton yelled directly into your face, his left eye returned to its pseudo-iris form, "ya better take me back _right now_ , or i'll-!"

Silence filled the anti-void as you stared deep into the monster's single glowing eye. Error's blue threads floated harmlessly around you, a constant reminder that every second the Fell didn't kill you could be the second that the glitched skeleton returned to make your life hell again. But nothing happened, and the Fell just stared at you, his anger slowly twisting and becoming more passive than actively violent.

No.

No, no, no, _no, NO!_

You weren't trying hard enough! He was slipping away from you! If he started using logic and all that crap, he would figure out that you were playing him before he could properly snap! If you didn't act fast you would lose your momentum and he wouldn't kill you at all!

"You're pathetic!" you spat in his face, your anger shining through as your previously manic grin slipped into a taunting sneer, "I knew you wouldn't do it! You thought you could kill me? No one ever has! You know why? Because they were cowards! Like _you_!"

Your insults were empty and vague, but they still riled up the skeleton just like you wanted. He gripped onto the front of your clothes like he wanted to tear you in half… But then he calmed himself again, looking at you with… disgust? It was like pity, but wrong somehow. You… no. That wasn't the reaction you wanted. Damn it. Damn it not again…

"wow, ya really wanna die, doncha?" the Fell Sans huffed, eyes returning to their normal red dots. His grip eased on your shirt. Fuck. You'd lost him. You lost again. And this time it had even looked like Error wouldn't show up in time.

Damn it. Was what you'd said too much? Too little? Too crazy? What were you doing wrong?

Disappointment hit you like a ten tonne sack of potatoes. For a moment there things had gotten really exciting, but now you just felt stupid. It was so frustrating! You wanted to die, but you didn't want your Soul to be taken either! You just wanted to _rest_ , but no one would ever let you. What a waste of energy.

As the adrenaline slowly left your body, leaving you a depressed and hollow husk, the skeleton before you stared at you with restrained scorn. His earlier rage was contained and he had started to think straight again. No doubt he wouldn't try to attack you again when he had so many questions that needed answers. It was yet another reason you hated these god-forsaken skeletons; a lot of them thought too deeply about things for their own good.

"i've changed my mind," the Fell scoffed as he looked down at your pathetic form with a sneer, "i'm not gonna kill ya. not yet at least…"

You slouched further at the confirmation of your fears. He really wasn't going to kill you. Not under _your_ terms, anyway. His terms involved your Soul being taken, and you couldn't have that. You would have to keep surviving all while enduring the constant fear of re-imprisonment and battling the unwelcome emotions that came with being 'free'... and that was _exhausting_.

"now... take me back to my bro."


	17. Control Character

The house was completely empty when Sans finally came to. In fact, it was so quiet that he was almost fooled into believing that he had somehow returned to _his_ home in _his_ world, and its destruction had simply been a terrifying and confusing fever dream. That theory, however, was quickly banished as soon as he realised that he was still wearing the baggy clothing which he had been given (or, more accurately, been forced to wear) by the alternate universe skeleton brothers. It... actually hurt pretty badly for the poor skeleton to have his hopes jerked around like that, especially when he was feeling so weak.

Welp, he'd just have to get over it. Sure, it was pretty upsetting how he'd lost his home and family, but he was already working on a plan to fix that, making wallowing in self pity a pretty pointless act. The floor seat was pretty uncomfortable too. Eventually Sans decided that nap time was officially over and if he let himself lie around any longer he'd probably get _deep rest_. Heh.

It was a brief yet dizzying trip to the kitchen, but the sagging skeleton somehow dragged himself there without stumbling. Once there, Sans had an embarrassingly long time trying to pry open the fridge door. It took several seconds of weak flailing before he was able to successfully overcome the annoying barrier between him and the magical contents within. Quickly he locked onto the first item within the semi-frozen haven that wasn't lasagna: a bottle of mustard haphazardly stowed away in the door shelving. Admittedly he would have preferred something else instead of the thick yellow condiment, but eventually he _mustard_ the courage to down the whole thing.

As soon as he'd finished it off and lazily tossed the empty bottle _almost_ into the nearby garbage can (which didn't matter much because he hadn't _wheelie bin_ paying attention), he let out a deep sigh of relief.

From an outsider's perspective Sans probably looked a bit pathetic in that moment, all slumped over with his eyes barely open, but anyone who'd ever had low HP would understand just how truly nerve wracking the shuddering monster's situation had just been. Between the unnatural burning that had been festering inside of his bones and the (unintentionally?) poisoned meal, the Sans considered himself lucky to be alive. If the lasagna's effects hadn't worn off while he was out, then Sans had no doubts whatsoever that he wouldn't have woken up at all. For as many ill-conceived spaghetti recipes he'd consumed, the stout skeleton had never truly experienced a full-blown poison status effect- Until now, that is. And oooooh _boy_ , what an experience it had been!

Maybe he should have listened to you when you said that 'Fells' were dangerous. After all, you did seem to know a lot about the multiverse and certain residents within it; to a point where you could apparently even catalogue them into things called 'subsets' and 'bases'. But even though your knowledge was far greater than Sans' own when it came to the subject of alternate realities, he held some doubts that you knew _everything_. Because _seriously_ , who else would spend an unknown amount of time trapped in a white void, simply because they believed there was no way out, when in fact there were _multiple_ exits right at their fingertips? It was a serious oversight on your behalf and it had caused Sans to question the legitimacy of some of your claims. Not that he would ever say that to your face! It wouldn't be nice to tease a defeatist like you for ' _not trying hard enough_ ' to escape your predicament. At the very least Sans understood that people made mistakes sometimes, and sometimes those mistakes could obscure even the most obvious of answers. So he'd done the usual thing and kept his big mouth shut, listening to your complaints and warnings without really accepting them.

But perhaps this time Sans shouldn't have let that single oversight completely colour his opinion of your judgement. Sure, you were pessimistic and hopeless and completely resigned to those two things being your defining traits, but he still shouldn't have dismissed your words just because they were all inlaid with negativity. Admittedly Sans had been far too focused on getting you to lighten up a little instead of taking your warnings to heart. Maybe he should've just shut up and agreed when you first suggested escaping to the anti-void while in the shed instead of 'acquiring' food. Or maybe he shouldn't have assumed that his alternate self followed the same timetable as him and stupidly lazed about in his room like it was perfectly safe. Or maybe, just _maybe_ , he should have put more faith into your warnings about the alternate Papyrus and just accepted that the new world you had both entered was kind of twisted, which would have saved you both from a very interesting 'meal'.

It was just... Sans didn't want to demonize his brother, even if the 'Fell' Pap wasn't _really_ his brother. And accepting that this… _Fell_ verse basically made everyone in it evil meant that he'd have to accept that his bro could also be evil. And that was just _weird_. Yeah, sure, multiverse theory would obviously support an incalculable amount of worlds in which the same person could either be good or evil, but that kind of reality like that was almost impossible for Sans to grasp. He just couldn't picture his cool and kindhearted bro being anything less than perfect. You could probably say that for a skeleton, Sans was pretty lacking in _backbone_.

But familiarity wasn't the _only_ thing that had kept Sans in his ignorance bubble. There had been one other thing that helped to impair his _judgement_ , so to say.

Sure, the dark Papyrus had knocked him out via blunt force trauma, setup sharp barbed wire for him and other unsuspecting victims to run into, locked him in a shed with the likely intention of teaching him and his human travel buddy a lesson, almost choked out said travel buddy simply by not paying attention, _and_ threatened to skewer him after he'd purposefully made himself a distraction with a rather _saucy_ pun- but it all seemed like an act when Sans could plainly see that the dark Papyrus had _no_ LV or EXP! A scarily convincing act, yeah, but an act all the same. How could Sans have _possibly_ believed your warnings that his not-bro was seriously dangerous when he had stats like that?

If only he had known that the true threat had never been the spooky skeleton himself, but rather his ever unconventional cooking style...

It was true that Sans' own Papyrus wasn't exactly a world class chef, but at least his brother never managed to mangle a dish to a point where it could _deal damage_ to its consumer, let alone outright _poison_ them! That was the complete _opposite_ of what good monster chow was supposed to do! And poor Sans had been naive enough to become a victim of the weapons-grade cuisine. Your haunting claim that LV wasn't really the be all or end all of a person's actions and intentions was pretty powerfully reinforced after _that_ little experience. While it was pretty much impossible to picture any version of Papyrus killing people on purpose, manslaughter via cooking was starting to look like a pretty viable option.

Now that it was over and he'd recovered completely, Sans was preeeeetty eager to leave.

Only… there was a slight problem. He couldn't find you. Anywhere.

The house's silence had been pretty easily to ignore when Sans had first woken up, but it was only once he realised just how odd it was for him to wake up completely alone that it truly started to sink in. Recently you had been within at least a few feet of Sans whenever he woke up; twice in the anti-void and once in Papyrus' prison-shed. So to suddenly wake up and not have you be around was pretty strange.

Quickly he searched the lounge room, kitchen, upstairs balcony, outside balcony, and the surrounding area of the house, only to find no sign of you whatsoever. He even took a quick peek in through a shed window, just to be sure you hadn't been locked in there again without him. But no matter where he searched you were nowhere to be found. Things only got worse when he cautiously poked around in 'his' room upstairs, only to find it similarly empty with the door still in pieces and scorch marks burned across the floor and walls. Scorch marks that were _very_ similar to the slightly fainter ones on the rug downstairs, which Sans was almost certain weren't there before he'd passed out.

Oooooh boy. That… that was _not_ a good sign. If something bad had happened to you-!

Sans had made it pretty clear that he wanted to work with you to basically Reset his world to before its destruction; a plan in which you were a key element, as you were the only person around who had a clue as to where Error kept the Souls of various 'Anomalies'. Without you around, Sans' chances of finding the Soul belonging to Frisk plummeted. He simply had no idea what the Soul room looked like or how to get there.

But there was also another, more immediate danger to losing you. He hadn't realised it when you first asked him, but being a monster- and therefore, not being able to withdraw his Soul- was a pretty big deal. The strings left by Error were seemingly both invisible and intangible while you were outside of the anti-void, and only withdrawing your _human_ Soul could reveal them again. Sans just couldn't do that on his own! The little blue threads were probably the only thing that allowed you both to enter and exit universes at will, so without you around to act as an emergency exit, it was safe to say that Sans was pretty _boned_.

Then again, it was also impossible for a human to draw their Soul out on their own, since humans generally didn't have the magical capabilities to do so. Well... unless said human had high LV - which you didn't have, thankfully. If either of you wanted to leave any given universe, then you would have to rely on each other completely. So at least Sans could say that you wouldn't just abandon him for no reason... right? Right. You'd been pretty eager to leave even _before_ the two of you had been caught messing about upstairs, and Sans was the only monster around with the want and knowledge to help with that, so there was _no way_ you would have left Sans behind on purpose!

This reasoning, paired with the burned rug and the fact that there were no signs of your footprints outside the house, led Sans to the obvious conclusion: the other Sans had kidnapped you.

...

 _Shit_.

Unlike with the alternate Papyrus, Sans hadn't had even the _slightest_ reason to believe that his giant, creepy self was anywhere _near_ a good person when he first saw him. The big guy had 10 LV. _TEN. LOVE_. And that was with 83 EXP to spare! When Sans had first seen his stats he had been shocked stupid. Why in the world would a monster trapped underground have such a high Love count? It was common knowledge among monsters that seven human Souls would be needed to break the Barrier, which would _maybe_ justify some deaths in the 'Fell' world if it happened to work similarly. But even if his intimidating counterpart killed all seven required humans _himself_ , it _still_ wouldn't give the big guy enough EXP for such an absurd amount of LV!

The only thing that could really explain it was if the big guy was truly _bad to the bone_ \- aka. an actual, unjustifiable murderer who attacked and killed his own kind frequently. At least humans who fell through the Barrier could claim fear and ignorance as the basis of their violence, but what excuse did this 'Fell' Sans have? The underground was his home! Every monster down there was practically his neighbour! How could a monster _possibly_ bring themselves to willingly slaughter their own kind?! It left Sans at a complete loss. And that wasn't even mentioning the twisted smile the big guy had plastered all over his skull when his beady red eyes locked on to your human Soul...

It was beginning to look like every single one of Sans' counterparts was a complete psychopath. From Error, to Fresh, to the giant Fell; Sans was starting to think he might be the only version of himself who wasn't messed up in some way. Even the Sans who had lived in the frozen world with Mettaton (whoever the hell he might've been) had built dangerous, magic-blocking wolf traps and hidden them throughout the snowy forest. If Mettaton hadn't let slip that the devices were made by 'him', then Sans might not have figured out how to open the latching mechanism and escape. Apparently great minds thought alike in every world, and Sans had been infinitely relieved when he found a tiny space hiding the release plate, which had matched the size of his own bony fingers _exactly_ with no room to spare. Even if he had escaped in the end, that kind of trap had the potential to be _very_ dangerous in a world which had almost _chilled him to the bone._

But enough of that! You were in danger (probably)! It was obvious that you had caught the other Sans' interest, and not in a good way. He'd likely taken the chance to strike sometime after Sans had hit the floor. There was no real evidence of it aside from the burn marks on the rug, but when he was given the time and space, Sans considered himself at least a somewhat observant guy. The recent fast pace of insane events and new information hadn't really given him the time to properly utilize those skills, but if there was ever a time for an in depth investigation of the details, it was now. For now, Sans' _slothing_ would become _sleuthing_!

And so the skeleton went full detective mode, rechecking the entire house for any more clues to your whereabouts. First off he noticed that, while there were quite a few scorch marks here and there downstairs, there was no blood. That meant you were likely uninjured- at least at the time when the attack first occurred. The next thing he figured out was that there was probably a reason for the burns to be so light, especially when compared to the charred mess of a room upstairs. Maybe the big guy hadn't wanted to draw too much attention to your scuffle? The first time he'd tried to attack you both, Papyrus swooped in due to the noise and inadvertently saved the day. The tall skeleton was seemingly resting in his room upstairs (which Sans had investigated _very_ briefly and _veeery_ carefully) and was undisturbed despite the signs of a scuffle not too far away. There was definitely _something_ going on between the two Fell brothers, as Sans had clearly heard his other self refer to you as a human, yet he didn't call you out in front of Papyrus when you lied and claimed both Sans and yourself were monster children; a plan which (while useful for keeping you both un-murdered at the time) kind of irked Sans. Like, _c'mon_ , he wasn't _that_ short. Could the alternate Papyrus _really_ not recognise him? Wolf Mettaton recognized him and he was, well, a wolf!

Anyway, the clues (as few as there were) helped Sans to narrow down just where he thought the other Sans had might have taken you. You hadn't been killed in the house (thank goodness), and there were no signs of anything out of the ordinary outside of the house either. That meant that whatever had gone down had taken place inside the house only, with the result being that you were mostly (presumably) unharmed. Afterwards the big guy had probably teleported somewhere with you, considering that the house was empty and there were no solid tracks in the snow. Taking into account that the other Sans also didn't want Papyrus knowing anything about what he was doing, he'd probably gone to a place where his brother couldn't find him. Such places were few and far between… except for one.

It had been a long time since Sans had gone to the basement, even in his own world. It was a place full of wasted time and other things he didn't want to think about too deeply any more. But the more he considered it, the more likely it seemed that you would be there. It was close by, under lock and key, completely soundproofed, and Papyrus never went down there. It would be the perfect prison for a human!

Finally armed with a new plan of action, Sans prepared himself to take a shortcut down into the basement. Sure, the key was probably just upstairs, hidden in a lamp or wherever his counterpart saw fit to stash it, but why waste time with searching when Sans could just do things the easy way? He was feeling up to it. The burning in his bones had long since passed while he was laid out on the floor and his concentration was fully on his restored magic. This would be _easy_.

Gravity warped a few paces ahead of Sans, forming an area that seemed to shimmer if one looked carefully enough. The 'shortcut' through the void acted somewhat like a wormhole, almost instantly transporting anything that passed through it from one point to another, bypassing all physical barriers, but unfortunately not magical ones unless it was made significantly more powerful. But, eh, that was all in the past now.

Just as Sans began to walk forward, he heard something- or someone- quietly call out.

* _Don't go._

The tiny voice made Sans jump. What the hell? Where had that even come from? He had been certain that there was no one else in the room but him. In fact, the whole house was abandoned except for Papyrus' room when he silently peeked in, and even he'd been in the middle of one of his mysterious naps (because 'sleeping' wasn't really a thing that Papyrus did, much to the bewilderment of others).

* _Don't go..._ the voice repeated, and Sans desperately surveyed the area for its source. Whoever the voice belonged to remained unseen. It was pretty nerve wracking for the skeleton, who was used to keeping as many things as he could within his sights. Not being able to see a potential enemy coming was… Well, it was pretty much the most dangerous situation imaginable.

* _There's danger. Stay here and wait. They'll come back._

"what? how do you-? who are you? where are you?"

Questions tumbled out of Sans as he continued to try and close in on the voice's owner. But for some reason he couldn't pinpoint exactly where the sound was coming from. It was almost as if it echoed from everywhere, yet nowhere at all. In fact, it almost seemed like the words were coming from inside of his own head!

The paranoid skeleton almost jumped a mile high when something grabbed his back. Crap! H-how did they get behind him? Keeping track of people was supposed to be Sans specialty; part of his 'talent' that got him a pretty important gig working for the King. But somehow someone- or some _thing_ \- had snuck up behind him and lightly fisted their hand into the fabric of his shirt, twisting the material so that they had an unbreakable grasp on him. Sans almost teleported out of there on instinct before he realised that the grip on his back would mean he'd be bringing an unknown passenger along for the ride.

Twisting as best he could, Sans tried to peek over his shoulders to catch a glimpse of whoever was behind him. However, whatever was back there kept itself well hidden, matching his steps perfectly so that he couldn't trip them up no matter how much he tried. Knowing that there was someone behind him that he couldn't see was horrifying. He was too delicate a monster to just allow someone to have such a steep advantage over him like that!

But the voice had been warning him of danger, hadn't it? Surely if they did that, they weren't planning on killing him… right? It was just, without being able to see them, Sans couldn't be completely certain in his _judgements_. Would an innocent person really go out of their way to hide behind him? Or was he just overthinking it? Should he attack them with bones? But what if it turned out that they meant no harm and Sans had lashed out at them for no reason?

Just as he was thinking of taking a huge risk by backing into a wall to pin the mysterious presence with his own body, the voice said something that made him pause.

* _Don't go into the void. Not in this world. He saw you the first few times. You won't make it out if you go again._

"wha- who-?" Sans blinked, completely still as he stared ahead into the empty room, ""this world"? you're sayin'... you know about other worlds?"

* _Be patient,_ the voice continued, completely ignoring his questions in favour of delivering more warnings, * _He wants revenge. You're close enough. He won't be able to tell the difference._

"who? who wants revenge?" Sans' questions were sounding more and more demanding as time went on. Having an unknown entity at his back had already made him feel vulnerable, but knowing that they knew about the multiverse put him even more on edge. And the fact that they were specifically warning him, speaking as if he they knew that he was familiar with the concept of other worlds… Had this person been watching Sans the whole time? The alone thought made him horribly agitated.

When the barrier had finally been broken in his world, Sans had thought he'd solved every mystery there was to be solved. Then Error had destroyed that world, and Sans was left with a whole new set of questions that only seemed to grow the more time passed. Why did Error destroy his world? Why was Sans kept prisoner in the anti-void? Who or what was the being behind him, and why was it giving him warnings? Wasn't it about time that he got some answers? At the very least _you_ had been honest with him, at first only giving out little bits of the truth at first before you gave up after only a little bit of pestering. But you were an easily irritated human in need of some serious venting, whereas the mysterious voice was completely calm and seemed to be intent on saying only what it wanted to say- no more and no less.

But before Sans could voice all of his many, many questions, a loud _**BANG**_ resonated from upstairs like a gunshot.

On edge as he was, Sans practically felt his whole body clatter in response to the noise. Looking up at the second floor he saw that Papyrus' door had been blown wide open and the now awake skeleton was stretching in the slightly chipped doorway. He wore the exact same clothes as the day before (not that Sans expected any less of him) and had not yet noticed the other monster downstairs, nor their mysterious guest.

* _It will be okay,_ the voice whispered, and Sans nearly jumped again, as he'd been temporarily distracted by the racket, * _Wait with him. They'll come back safely. Please… stay safe, Sans._

Immediately the grip on the back of Sans' shirt disappeared and he turned as fast as he could. Of course he found nothing, the owner of the voice having disappeared, refusing to be seen. The whole encounter was baffling. Not only did the voice know who Sans was, but it apparently knew about the void and different worlds. He didn't have any answers for who the mysterious "he" was who apparently "saw him" and wanted "revenge", but from the sound of it the "they" who would "come back" was most likely you.

How did the voice know that Sans was searching for you? Why would it care about his safety? Or maybe it was just another malicious entity like Error or Fresh, attempting to manipulate him for their own gain? Maybe-

"HYAAAAAAAAA!"

Sans' dodged completely out of instinct. With a quick step and the help of his magic, the stout skeleton very quickly moved to the left just before the floorboards he'd been standing on exploded into splinters.

"AHA! SO YOU DODGED THIS TIME! MAYBE YOU AREN'T SUCH A LOST CAUSE AFTER ALL!" Papyrus- the Fell one who was _not_ Sans' brother (it was hard to remember that)- smirked sharply as he yanked his red bone attack out of the flooring, leaving a smoking crater in it's wake. Holy shit. If that had hit Sans' skull instead of the ground…

"YOU SEE, WHEN I SAW YOU SIMPLY STANDING AROUND WITH YOUR BACK TO ME AND LOOKING SO VULNERABLE, I JUST _KNEW_ I HAD TO DELAY MY DAILY ROUTINES FOR A MOMENT TO PUT YOU TO THE TEST!" Papyrus explained, paying no mind whatsoever to Sans' shocked expression, "THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT YOU PASSED! HOWEVER, THE BAD NEWS IS THAT I AM STILL NOT IMPRESSED WITH YOUR PERFORMANCE LAST NIGHT! THAT MEANS THAT SO FAR YOUR SCORE IS A VERY UNIMPRESSIVE ZERO!"

"h-heh… wow. y-ya sure got me there, br- uh… yep."

Sans was completely shaken by the sudden, unexpected display of power. So much so that almost all of his concerns regarding the mysterious voice had been flung forcefully out of his skull when he dodged. Because really? What the hell kind of 'test' was _that_!? Sans knew that his own Papyrus sometimes handled dangerous puzzles and took joy in getting Frisk to complete them, though his kind and naive nature never allowed him to hurt anyone. But _this_ Papyrus didn't seem to have that kind of restraint. What the hell was he thinking by striking out of nowhere like that!? Hadn't he said _himself_ that killing kids was illegal and worthy of a death sentence!? Sure, Sans wasn't _really_ a kid- But the other skeleton didn't know that!

"ACTUALLY…" the Fell continued with a sneer, "THAT SCORE IS NOT ENTIRELY CORRECT! I DISTINCTLY REMEMBER YOU TELLING PUNS! SO YOU DESERVE A STRIKE FOR EACH PUN! ALSO YOU ATTEMPTED TO STEAL CONDIMENTS AND ESCAPED FROM MY PRISON YESTERDAY! SO THAT'S TWO MORE STRIKES! _ALSO_ ALSO, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE IN YOUR ROOM! BY WHICH I MEAN THE PRISON AGAIN! SO FOR ESCAPING MY INESCAPABLE JAIL CELL _YET AGAIN_ I MUST ADD ANOTHER STRIKE! THAT LEAVES YOU WITH THE DESPICABLE TOTAL OF NEGATIVE FIVE!"

"oh…" Sans twitched nervously under his brothe- um, not-brother's glare, "well, uh, technically i didn't escape from your jail a second time. didn't even know i was 'sposed ta be in there to be honest. kinda just… woke up on the floor downstairs. alone."

Papyrus stood completely still for a moment, as though he was processing the shorter monster's words. Finally something seemed to click in his head and very suddenly he morphed into a being of pure outrage.

"SAAAAANS!" he screamed, and for a moment Sans assumed that _he_ was the one being screamed at and froze up. However the tall skeleton ignored his fearful reaction and continued to yell into the air. "YOU WORTHLESS LAZYBONES! I TOLD YOU TO PUT THE CHILDREN IN THE SHED!"

Stone cold silence greeted the skeleton's screeching, which seemed to make him burn an even brighter shade of red. Before he could explode again and break all the windows with his high-pitched shrieks, Sans spoke up.

"i kinda already checked the place out before you woke up. your, uh- your bro isn't here."

"WHAT!? THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! MY USELESS BROTHER WOULD NEVER VOLUNTARILY WAKE UP BEFORE AT LEAST TEN O'CLOCK! IT'S WAY TOO EARLY!"

"early?" Sans asked curiously as the other skeleton gazed furiously upstairs towards the empty bedrooms, "wait, what time is it?"

"CURRENTLY IT IS 4:30 IN THE MORNING, WHICH IS A MINIMUM OF FIVE AND A HALF HOURS FROM WHEN SANS WOULD NORMALLY DRAG HIS WORTHLESS, GREASY BODY OUT OF BED! HOW ODD!"

"f-four thirty!?"

Sans couldn't help but bring a hand to his head in worry. The last thing he could remember was the 'dinner' he'd eaten, which had probably been served at somewhere around 8:30PM. That meant at least seven hours had passed since he'd fainted. Seven whole hours where you could have been snatched away and murdered brutally without him being able to do a thing about it. Crap. He didn't want anything bad to happen to you! You were a direly needed ally in this multiverse of seemingly endless psychopaths! Not to mention that you had the potential to be a pretty neat and fun person if your earlier play-fight meant anything. If you died then all of his efforts would have been for nothing!

 _No_. He couldn't think like that. Of course you couldn't be dead! You were pretty smart and decent at dodging, so you would be okay! Right? S-somewhere out there you were probably just waiting for Sans to show up so that you could yell at him for not helping you sooner! Yeah! That sounded more like you!

"I SUPPOSE I WILL JUST HAVE TO CORRECT MY BROTHER'S FOOLISH WAYS LATER!" Papyrus continued, completely ignorant to Sans' internal panic, "BUT SPEAKING OF GREASY BODIES, JUST _WHAT_ HAVE YOU BEEN DOING? YOU'RE MORE DISGUSTING THAN AN OOZING SLIME WHO'S BEEN ROLLING IN THE DUMP FOR THREE DAYS! YOU WERE WASHED JUST LAST NIGHT! HOW DID YOU BECOME SO INSULTINGLY FILTHY?!"

Looking down at himself, Sans realised that he was right. Between the poisoning, worrying and unexpected voices, Sans had done a whole lot of sweating. It had even soaked through his borrowed clothes, making the ill-fitting fabric cling and bunch up against his bones in uncomfortable ways. Despite it being pretty gross, Sans felt more upset by the fact that he'd utterly failed to keep his cool and inadvertently created the sweat-nami that now coated him. Ever since he'd left the familiarity of his world's Underground and the semi-predictable loops of the resets, Sans had discovered that his unflappable attitude was in fact quite flappable. But who could really blame him when everything that had happened after Error's forceful intrusion was just so damn insane?

"uh…" he stalled, picking at his shirt as the other skeleton stared down at him like a mum about to deliver a scolding, "i was just… lookin' for my friend. have ya seen 'em anywhere?"

"WHAT KIND OF A QUESTION IS THAT?" Papyrus scoffed, "CAN'T YOU SEE THAT I HAVE ONLY JUST LEFT MY ROOM? YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON THAT I SEE HERE, BUT I WISH THAT YOU WEREN'T! MY EYE SOCKETS ARE ITCHING JUST FROM LOOKING AT YOU! _UGH!_ I CAN'T STAND IT! I SUPPOSE I HAVE NO CHOICE! BREAKFAST WILL HAVE TO BE DELAYED! I WILL NOT HAVE SOMETHING AS REVOLTING AS YOU WALKING AROUND IN MY HOUSE! YOU'RE GETTING A WASH, MISTER!"

"woah, hey, wait, but i gotta-!"

Leaving no room for argument, the Fell Papyrus then grabbed both of Sans' bunched up sleeves and pulled them out to their full length. With a twist and a flourish he spun the shorter skeleton around until he was helplessly tangled in the cloth with his arms pinned to his sides. Sans let out a yelp as his feet momentarily left the ground, only for them to be bundled up and restrained within the fabric too. Seriously, how big was this fucking shirt?

By the end of it, Sans was left dangling in what could only be described as a skeleton cocoon, which Papyrus held up by the sleeves he had now tied into a long sling.

"I REFUSE TO TOUCH SOMETHING AS DISTURBING AS YOU ARE IN YOUR CURRENT STATE," he huffed as he walked purposefully into the kitchen with Sans helplessly dangling beside him, "SO THIS WILL HAVE TO DO! YOU'LL BE IN CHARGE OF WASHING YOURSELF, TOO! YOU'RE A CHILD AFTERALL, NOT A BABY!"

"but wait! m-my buddy-" he wriggling skeleton bean protested.

"WE'LL FIND THEM LATER! PROBABLY! FOR NOW YOUR FIRST PRIORITY SHALL BE TO RID YOURSELF OF ALL YOUR FILTH!"

Sighing deeply, Sans resigned himself to being carried around by the taller skeleton. He supposed that the voice _had_ told him to "stay with him" and that you would "come back", but he still wasn't sure if he could trust them. Then again it didn't seem very likely that he would be able to escape the eternally enraged monster's care very easily. It was a tricky situation where he wasn't sure what would be the best route to take, but for now he would simply have to go with the flow until he had a chance to escape.

Little did he know that the voice's words would eventually turn out to be true.


	18. int isupper int islower

So I'm currently freaking out with university work at the moment, which should explain why this update is even more out of nowhere than normal. Sorry about that. I guess I just hate author's notes that badly that I'd rather dissapear without a single word than write an entire chapter of apologies. Not a good way to run things, I know, but that's the way I am.

I honestly wrote this chapter and then spent several days wondering if it actually needed to exist at all. In the end I decided screw it, you guys can have it. Why should I withhold content from you, even if I technically icould/i write it into the next chapter as a few offhand remarks? In a way you could probably consider this to be filler (maybe). Next Chapter is back to Reader's POV (finally!)

...

...

...

* * *

Sans watched in morbid fascination as the angry skeleton below him slammed two jars of spices straight into a large metal pot, shattering them both on impact. If this was the way that the Fell Papyrus normally cooked, then that would certainly explain the absurd amount of glass that had been present in his lasagna the previous night. The rest of his 'cooking methods' weren't any less destructive either, and Sans was incredibly grateful that he remained relatively safe from the chaos on his high perch in the kitchen sink.

Now, how and why was Sans in the ten foot tall kitchen sink? Well, _obviously_ it was because Papyrus had thrown him up there before he started 'cooking'. Careful not to "LET ANY OF THOSE DISGUSTING BONES TOUCH SOMEONE AS RESPECTABLE AS ME", Papyrus had easily carried the bundled Sans into the kitchen. Once there he grasped the shorter skeleton's shirt-prison by the arms and spun around once- twice- _three_ times before launching the unsuspecting monster-turned-throwing-weight high into the air. It wasn't until he was floating weightlessly at the peak of a majestic arc that Sans even realised he'd suddenly rocketed up towards the ceiling. Thankfully he hadn't had the time to embarrass himself by yelping his surprise, as the trip back down hadn't been very far. Instead of painfully returning with a splat onto the cold kitchen tile as he thought he would, Sans touched down safely with a hollow thump in the sink basin, higher than even Papyrus could reach without assistance.

"NOW BATHE, YOU FILTHY CRETIN!" Papyrus had yelled, "AND DON'T EVEN _THINK_ ABOUT PULLING ANOTHER ONE OF YOUR DEVILISH ESCAPE PLOTS! I'LL BE RIGHT BELOW YOU THE WHOLE TIME TO MAKE SURE YOU CLEANSE YOURSELF FULLY!"

After that the Fell went about with his daily routines while Sans spent several minutes wriggling about, desperately trying to unwrap himself from his knotted, filthy clothes. In the end he struggled with the twisted shirt so much that he wound up an even bigger exasperated and sweaty mess than before. That was the final straw that convinced Sans that, yeah, he _was_ pretty gross and really _did_ need a rinse down. It helped that after taking away the hellish cloth that had restrained him for so long, the perpetually pissed off Papyrus had also assured Sans that his regular clothes would be washed and dried by the time he was done bathing. Having his jacket and fuzzy slippers back would be wonderful, especially if it meant that Sans didn't have to wear any more ridiculously oversized clothes that smelt of mothballs.

Yet all this didn't distract Sans from his original goal of the morning, and even though he was supposed to be washing himself, Sans opted instead to subtly pester the other skeleton in the hopes that he could convince him to look for you. Though his efforts hadn't exactly been met with success...

"hmm," Sans began for the umpteenth time as he rested his chin on the edge of the basin, "y'know, i'm sure whatever you're makin' will be... _great_ and all, but dontcha want everyone to be around when ya serve it? 'cause we both know there's at least one preeeeetty important person who'll be missin' out if we don't look for-"

"OH, CEASE WITH YOUR PETULANT WHINING, CHILD!" Papyrus hissed as he splattered a half-frozen bowl of meat(?) into his pot, "I HAVE ALREADY TOLD YOU THAT I WILL NOT BE KEPT FROM MY MORNING ROUTINES ANY LONGER!"

Huffing, Sans sloshed about in the water-filled sink. He'd really landed himself in a tricky situation. The real Papyrus would have been on the case _instantly_ if Sans revealed that anyone was in danger and needed his help, but not _this_ Papyrus. No matter how many times he asked or how he framed it, the Fell would instantly reject Sans' requests to seek you out, constantly claiming that it was either a waste of his time or that he was already occupied with more important tasks; such as destroying half of the kitchen apparently. It was beginning to become frustrating!

But if Sans couldn't convince this weird, dickish version of his brother to look for you, then his options became horribly limited. After all, the irritable monster was clearly throwing glances up at Sans to make sure he wasn't trying to run away before he was properly cleaned. In fact, from his demeanor alone it was obvious that Papyrus wasn't going to let the smaller skeleton out of his sights at all, and any attempts to leave on his own would be met with dire consequences. Sure, Sans could just take a shortcut out of the kitchen to escape him, but he wasn't really interested in going out all _bare bones_ in search of you. Even if he tried to make a quick trip to reclaim his clothes from the laundry before being caught, the ominous warnings from the mysterious voice still clung relentlessly to the inside of Sans' skull, quietly warning the skeleton not to jump through the void again lest a mysterious someone exact "revenge" on him. Or something. Whatever the hell that was supposed to mean.

Sans didn't really have much reason to believe anything the voice had said to him, aside from the feeling of dread that ran down his spine whenever he thought about disobeying their warnings. Then again it was pretty weird that a mysterious voice would just appear behind Sans and deliver such ominous warnings without any reason. What they had said even implied that they knew who Sans was, what his magic could do, that he wanted to find you, _and_ that he had was capable of travelling through different worlds. Because of that, Sans had to assume that whoever had been the owner of the mysterious voice was pretty damn powerful, so maybe ignoring their words wasn't such a good idea...

But even then, it could _still_ be be a setup for a nasty trap. What kind of trap? Well, Sans wasn't really sure himself, but he _was_ sure that he didn't want to be caught off guard for the hundredth time since the whole multiverse deal had been revealed to him. He didn't want to stumble head-first into _Fresh_ dangers. (Heh… It was funny because Fresh had been _fucking terrifying_ ).

In the end Sans had decided to abide by the vague words, but with a twist. The two things that voice had asked of him were to 1: not use shortcuts and 2: stay with Papyrus. So why not do both of those things while _also_ searching for you? Sans technically didn't have to play the ever arduous waiting game if he could convince the Fell to search with him! It should have been easy! Unfortunately, Sans was quickly coming to accept that the Fell Paps was allergic to helping people.

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY YOU CONTINUE TO BE SO CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR FOOLISH COMPANION!" the Fell sneered as he vigorously stirred the oily contents of his pot, "ATTACHMENTS ONLY MAKE YOU WEAKER! IF I WAS YOU, I WOULD FORGO SUCH THINGS AND FOCUS ON BECOMING STRONGER! IN FACT, IF YOU CARED AT ALL ABOUT YOUR OWN SURVIVAL, YOU WOULD HAVE DUSTED THIS 'FRIEND' OF YOURS YOURSELF! ANYONE ELSE WOULD HAVE! I'M FAIRLY SURE THAT A CHILD CANNOT BE PUNISHED FOR KILLING ANOTHER CHILD! YOU SHOULD BE USING THIS LOOPHOLE TO YOUR ADVANTAGE WHILE YOU STILL CAN!"

"th-that's terrible!" Sans sputtered suddenly, shocked that such violent and heartless words could so casually spill from the mouth of his 'brother', "i thought kids were 'sposed to be protected 'round here! you even spared us yourself! ya can't just encourage murder like that!"

"NONSENSE! IT IS GOOD SURVIVAL ADVICE!" the taller skeleton scoffed, "AND BESIDES, JUST BECAUSE CHILDREN LIKE YOU ARE VALUABLE TO SOCIETY DOES NOT MEAN THAT I HAVE TO _CARE_ IF YOU DIE! IT WOULD BE A SLIGHT LOSS TO THE MONSTER POPULATION IF SOMETHING CAUSED YOUR ACCOMPLICE TO PERISH, BUT UNLESS SUCH PERISHING CALLS FOR AN EXECUTION OF THEIR MURDER, THEN IT WILL NOT MATTER TO ME! STRENGTHENING YOURSELF THROUGH DEADLY COMBAT IS KEY AT YOUR AGE! BESIDES, TAKING IN TWO CHILDREN MEANS WOULD MEAN USING TWICE THE RESOURCES TO SUSTAIN YOU! SANS ONLY NEEDS ONE CHILD TO GAIN THE LEGAL BENEFITS OF BEING A GUARDIAN, SO YOU ALONE WILL DO IF YOUR COMPANION HAS DECIDED TO BE A FOOL AND WANDER OFF!"

Gritting his teeth, Sans glared at the other skeleton below him. How could he be so flippant on such a horrifying topic? It was completely heartless! Disgusting even! The _real_ Papyrus would never even _think_ of such terrible things, let alone _say_ them! You could be _dying_ for goodness sake!

But suddenly something the other monster said clicked, and Sans instantly softened. He didn't understand why this Papyrus was so ruthless in his opinions, but Sans suspected it had something to do with the world they were in. He hadn't seen much outside of the house and the outskirts of Snowdin, but if what you had briefly told him of 'Fell' worlds was true, then the tall skeleton's merciless attitude made more sense.

Through what had either been implied or directly stated to him, Sans now knew that 'Fell' worlds were horrifying places. Violence and death threats seemed to be the norm here, and even without the visual confirmation, the knowledge that harsh laws had to be enacted just to stop people from murdering children spoke volumes about just how dangerous a place it was. But just a second ago, Papyrus had given him an even bigger clue into the universe's cruelty. The dismissive skeleton had said that " _anyone else would have_ " killed their friends as a child, just so they could gain an upper hand in life. That was so twisted that it was bordering on absurd! Just who the hell could possibly survive in a world that violent?! Sans couldn't help but picture a tiny Paps- small and adorable and completely ignorant to the world- growing up in a place so unforgiving and hostile that he would have to _fight_ other kids to survive. The poor lil baby bones wouldn't have lasted two seconds, he was just that passive...

But _this_ Papyrus? He had adapted. He had survived. He'd crafted a delicate act that hid the fact that he _hadn't actually killed anyone_ , no matter how easily he spouted out threats. Sans could plainly see that the dark skeleton didn't have a single point of LV. Even Sans' big, bad alternate self had failed that tricky task! Maybe Sans was imagining a ray of hope in a place where there was actually none, but the evidence still suggested that this Papyrus- no matter how hostile- was likely a good person deep down.

If you were around you probably would have scolded him for being so naive and forgiving- but you weren't around right now, were you? The short skeleton was free to handle things _his_ way for once, which meant he could be as sappy and hopeful as he wanted to be. So maybe, just _maybe_ , if Sans kept on trying, he could draw out the kind and merciful side that the Fell Paps was so desperately trying to hide behind his violent facade. All he had to do was find the right buttons to push; and Sans had a pretty good idea of where to strike next.

Sighing in an almost dramatic fashion to get the other skeleton's attention, Sans shrugged and pretended to look as downcast as possible.

"welp, i guess if ya don't care then ya don't care..." he mumbled wistfully.

"EXACTLY!" came the reply from below, "I DON'T CARE ABOUT ANYTHING!"

"right. i mean, why would ya wanna protect a total stranger, even if they _are_ a helpless kid?"

"I WOULDN'T! THAT IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN SAYING THIS WHOLE TIME!"

"yeah. of course. you'd only be worried about somethin' more important. like, say... a family member goin' missin'?"

Sans watched as Papyrus froze for a second. _Finally_! A reaction! Why hadn't he thought to use this route in the first place? If the Fell world was truly as hostile as it sounded, then keeping families close was probably really important! Maybe instead of asking after _you_ for so long, Sans should have been focusing more on drawing up concern for Papyrus' missing brothe-

" _PFFT_ HAHHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Obnoxious laughter erupted from the tall skeleton and Sans couldn't help but feel confused.

"uh… wait, wha...?" he began, but couldn't say any more as Papyrus started to laugh louder and bang his fist on the countertop while doubled over. It was quite a scene, actually. Every thump of the skeleton's fist caused something to bounce off the countertop and his the floor with a loud clatter, yet Papyrus didn't seem to care past his laughter. It almost seemed as though he couldn't breathe and Sans was honestly concerned. What… What the _hell_ was going on? Was the other monster having some kind of fit? Or did something hilarious happen that he hadn't noticed? Whatever it was, it was really making _really_ Sans uncomfortable. Paps didn't laugh like that. The twisted cackling, the eerie tone- it was all just… _wrong_ somehow.

All of a sudden, with an abruptness that created the worst whiplash ever, the laughing stopped and the Fell turned to glare at Sans who had started practically hiding behind the lip of the kitchen sink out of worry.

"WHAT KIND OF IDIOT ARE YOU!?" Papyrus screeched, obviously enraged. That was when it became clear to Sans that the previous weird laughter had been the other skeleton _mocking_ him. _Papyrus_! _Mocking_ him! What the _hell_? That was just _weird_!

Regardless of Sans' shock, the Fell Papyrus continued to berate Sans for his 'idiocy'.

"DO YOU HONESTLY THINK THAT SOMEONE AS _GREAT_ AND _POWERFUL_ AS I WOULD WASTE MY TIME KEEPING TABS ON MY USELESS BROTHER?" he scoffed, "I DO NOT CARE WHERE SANS HAS GONE, EVEN IF IT IS EXTREMELY ODD FOR HIM TO DISAPPEAR AT THIS HOUR! LIKE ANYONE IN THIS SOCIETY, HE MUST CARRY HIS _OWN_ WEIGHT IN HIS _OWN_ TIME! AND CONSIDERING HOW LITTLE EXERCISE HE DOES, THAT IS QUITE A LOT OF WEIGHT! I'M NOT EVEN SURE HOW HE MANAGES TO MAINTAIN THAT BULBOUS FORM OF HIS! ONE MIGHT BE CONVINCED THAT HE HAS NEVER USED MAGIC IN HIS LIFE AND INSTEAD HOARDED IT AWAY! AND ALL TO BECOME A USELESS LUMP! WHAT A _WASTE_! WOULD YOU BELIEVE THAT HE EVEN-!"

What followed next was a long tirade on the Fell Pap's brother and his apparent 'unhealthiness'. When Sans had brought up the fact that the his most-likely-evil-counterpart was missing, he'd at least expected some _um_ -ing and _ah_ -ing over where the big guy had gone and not… an insult-ridden rant about diets and proper work ethic? Well, at least, that's what it kind of started off as before swinging wildly off track so that the rambling skeleton could mercilessly rip into his big-bellied bro and his various bad habits. Seriously, some of the things the dark Papyrus was saying about his brother were just downright nasty! Sure, Sans' own brother often called him lazy, but there was never any real bite behind the words. But _this_! Oh _boy_. This was _very_ different. It was a complete, no holds barred verbal _slamming_ of the missing skeleton. Some of the words the rambling monster used to describe his own sibling weren't just _mean_ , but so cripplingly harsh that Sans himself wouldn't _dare_ to repeat them to anyone's face. In fact, it was so intense that Sans actually began to feel hurt and insulted in his counterpart's place! He didn't want to hear about how ' _he_ ' was a large, bloated, buffoonish, abominable, abhorrent, despicable, dishonourable, unsavoury, seedy, vile, _sleazy, shameful, degenerative, THICK-HEADED, SHAMEFUL PIECE OF-_!

"ok! ok! i get it! i get the point! your bro is lazy!" Sans finally snapped out of distress, hands gripping his forehead. That was it! He was at his limit! If Sans had to listen to this _not_ -Papyrus deal out even one more round of unforgiving verbal lashings about his brother, then his spirit was bound to break in two!

"YOU FORGOT THAT HE IS ALSO IRRITATING _AND_ WORTHLESS _AND_ DISTURBINGLY CREEPY WHENEVER HE GETS HIS HANDS ON THOSE WEIRD PICTURE BOOKS THAT ALPHYS HAS WITH THE TENTACLES THAT DO NOT RESPECT PERSONAL BOUNDARIES-!"

" _okaaaaay!_ okay! ok! say no more! really. please stop sayin' things about… _things_. don't need to know any more! _please_."

"VERY WELL! AS LONG AS YOU UNDERSTAND _WHY_ YOUR CONCERNS ARE FOOLISH! I SUPPOSE YOU MAY NOW CONSIDER YOURSELF A LEARNED CHILD!"

Papyrus nodded to himself, pleased that his rant had apparently achieved something. Sans, meanwhile, splashed water over his head and scrubbed at his face in a vain attempt to wash away the last thing the spiteful yet somehow still ignorant skeleton had said. _Ugh_! He _knew_ the other Sans was a creep from the moment he laid eyes on him, but that was just _gross_. Sans himself had only encountered such… _material_ in the dump. Y'know, where it _belonged_. Did his counterpart really read that crap!? And did he seriously let his brother _see_ what he was reading?! That knowledge alone was far more scarring than all the previous insults combined!

But regardless of questionable reading material, Sans couldn't help but feel a little sad thinking that the brothers might _actually_ despise one another. He'd seen the distrust in his counterpart when he hadn't told Papyrus you were a human, and now with Papyrus' rant he just felt… kinda heartbroken actually. The relationship between the two was pitiful, and even though it was disheartening to see, Sans didn't know if he could do anything about it. He also didn't really have the time, what with you being missing and all. It just seemed so sad that in another universe, Sans and his brother could truly hate each other so fiercely, even though they lived under the same roof. And probably worked together. And likely purchased food and necessities for each other to survive. And paid for and decorated the house so they could both live comfortably...

…

Wait a minute. Wasn't that all a little bit weird, considering Papyrus' earlier words?

Suddenly curious, Sans couldn't help but pipe up again.

"y'know, i don't get why you think i'm stupid for askin' a simple question," he innocently stated as he tapped the sink's metal rim slowly, "i just thought ya might be wonderin' where your bro's gone to so early."

"AND WHY WOULD I CARE ABOUT THAT? I _TOLD_ YOU THAT I DO NOT CARE ABOUT _ANYONE_!" Papyrus angrily replied, trying to turn up the heat on the oven even though it was already set to max. He let out an irritated " _Nyeh_ " when the dial inevitably snapped off in his hand.

"weeeeell," Sans drawled, slightly sloshing about in the water high above the glaring skeleton, "first of all ya said that attachments make ya weaker, but you live with your bro anyway. 's kinda suspicious if ya ask me…"

"WH-WHAT? YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" Papyrus spluttered angrily. Sans held back a calculative hum as he watched as Papyrus immediately turned his attention away from the stove and completely onto Sans. Interestingly enough had regained the same tension in his bones Sans had observed the split second before he started his obnoxious laughing fit. Had that bit actually been genuine then? Interesting...

"THERE IS NO ' _ATTACHMENT_ ' BETWEEN MYSELF AND THAT IMBECILE!" Papyrus hastily defended himself, "THE ONLY REASON I ALLOW HIM TO LIVE IS BECAUSE HE IS OBEDIENT!"

"really? 'cuz i thought he was lazy, gluttonous, negligent, and " _always testing you with his irritating humour and tasteless pranks_ "."

Sans watched as Papyrus gawked and fumed as he purposefully quoted the tamer parts of the other skeleton's rant. _Whoopsie_! It looked like _someone_ had caught a certain big scary monster in a lie~! After all, if the Fell Papyrus didn't care about his brother, then he would have followed his own advice and simply "focused on becoming stronger". Basically that meant he would have dusted his brother in their early childhoods, or basically any time after that since they obviously lived together. But the Fell Papyrus obviously hadn't killed his bro, despite the countless opportunities he'd probably been presented with. In fact, he had never dusted _anyone_ ; as his low LV could easily attest to. Even stranger, the Fell Sans hadn't dusted his Paps either, despite having _ten_ LV, so there had to be _some_ kind of trust in their relationship despite appearances.

As weird as it was, Sans couldn't help but feel a little bit of... pride, perhaps? Even in a sick and twisted world, the brother's relationship had somehow endured.

The other skeleton, however, didn't exactly share his sentiments.

"YOU-!" the Fell Papyrus fumed, completely ignoring the overflowing pot beside him as he frantically searched for the words he needed, "TH-THAT IS _ENTIRELY_ INCORRECT! SANS IS INDEED ALL OF THOSE THINGS AND MORE, HOWEVER-! HE IS! ALSO! LOYAL? YES, THAT'S IT, _LOYAL_! TO ME SPECIFICALLY! AND THAT GIVES ME MORE POWER AND INFLUENCE! WHICH IS _IMPORTANT_! BECAUSE _THEN-_! OTHER PEOPLE CAN LEARN FROM HIS EXAMPLE AND PROPERLY DEDICATE THEMSELVES TO SOMEONE AS GREAT AND TERRIBLE AS ME!"

"right." Sans hummed calmly, one arm propped up on the sink edge so he could stare down lazily at the skeleton below him, "so that's why he's up and disappeared at four in the mornin' without tellin' you."

" _ITOLDYOUTHATIDON'TCAREWHEREMYUSLESSBROTHERHASGONE_!" the bright red monster shrieked suddenly, already close to snapping, "GET IT THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL! I _ONLY_ CARE WHEN HE IS DOING THINGS FOR _ME_ , UNDER _MY_ SPECIFIC ORDERS AND NO OTHER TIME! ARE WE **CLEAR**?!"

"really? you wouldn't care even a lil bit?"

"NO!"

"not even if your bro was in danger?"

"OF COURSE NOT!"

"... not even if he died?"

"UGH! STOP WITH YOUR ANNOYING, IGNORANT QUESTIONS!" Papyrus growled, clearly furious, "BESIDES, UNDER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES COULD THAT FOOL _POSSIBLY_ DIE?"

"well… i can think of one."

Immediately Papyrus wordlessly glared at Sans, seemingly calling his bluff with his stare alone.

Sans inwardly sighed. While he felt it was obvious he was right in the assumption that the Fell Papyrus was actually as soft as he'd first thought, he was still treading on dangerous territory. He had a new plan- one that would finally convince the tall skeleton to search for you with him- but for some reason he didn't feel very comfortable with it. It just seemed so… manipulative? Maybe he would have felt better if he actually had something to offer to assuage his guilt, but if he was going to find you, then he needed Papyrus' help no matter the cost. Hell, if it didn't work out then Sans would just give up and search for you on his own; mysterious warnings be damned. He'd wasted enough time as it was by arguing back and forth with the angry monster.

"have you, uh, looked at the rug near the couch?" Sans asked carefully, keeping eye contact with the tense skeleton below him, "there's scorch marks in there, like there was a fight or somethin'. do you know anythin' 'bout that?"

"THERE ARE?!" Papyrus growled angrily, "THAT IDIOT! WHAT DOES SANS THINK HE'S DOING, DESTROYING MY PERFECT HOUSE?!"

"well, personally, i think there was a fight," he admitted honestly, "between your bro and my buddy, specifically."

"HMM. I SUPPOSE THAT THEORY HOLDS WATER!" Papyrus hummed to himself, suddenly looking smug, "I DID PRAISE THE SQUISHY CHILD FOR THEIR OBEDIENCE LAST NIGHT! PERHAPS SANS BECAME JEALOUS THAT HE DID NOT RECEIVE MY COMPLIMENTS INSTEAD! NYAHAHA! OF COURSE! I AM, AFTER ALL, VERY AMAZING! BEING GRANTED APPROVAL FROM ME IS THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE REWARD IN LIFE!"

"jealous, huh?" Sans quirked an eyebrow. He hadn't known that you had been praised since he'd been busy being poisoned and such, but it was a great out for him to not explain the _real_ reason his Fell self seemed to be targeting you. In fact, when he'd first started pleading with the Fell to find you, Sans hadn't really wanted to expose too much of his findings. Far too many uncontrollable and unexpected circumstances could have arisen from simply revealing too much of the truth too quickly, or even at the wrong time. But now that Sans had the other skeleton's attention and an opportunity to actually, effectively utilize his findings, he had no more reasons to hold back.

"do ya think he'd be jealous enough... to kill?"

"MOST LIKELY!" Papyrus nodded almost _proudly_ as he nonchalantly confirmed that his brother was a crazed murderer, "I AM ALMOST CERTAIN THAT HE HAS DUSTED VARIOUS IGNORANT BUFFOONS FOR LESS!"

Holding back a shudder at that thought, Sans continued speaking in a calm fashion.

"well, that could be a problem," he muttered as he casually looked at the water stains in the basin instead of the skeleton who was practically hanging on his every word, "'cause my buddy… ya know they're just a kid, right?"

"OF COURSE! DO YOU THINK I WOULD HAVE FORGOTTEN SO QUICKLY?"

"an' the punishment for killin' kids was…?"

"A PAINFUL AND EXCRUCIATING DEATH DELIVERED BY THE ROYAL GUARD!"

"right. so... my buddy's missin'. and your bro's missin'. and your bro likes to _kill_ people…"

"WAIT…"

"so what do ya think they're doin' _right now?_ "

"U-UM…"

"more importantly… who do ya think is gonna win?"

"I… UH…"

"then again, i guess it doesn't matter who wins… 'cause your bro's gonna lose either way."

…

The sound of vicious bubbling of an overflowing pot filled the otherwise silent room as Sans' words hung ominously in the air. It was all a bluff of course, because if his alternate self had already killed you then there would actually be no punishment at all. In fact, with how messed up the Fell world was described to be, there would probably be a party or something where your bloodied corpse was used as a decoration. No monster would mourn your death. You _were_ a human after all, and not even a child at that. But the Fell Papyrus didn't know that, and that was all that Sans really needed.

As far as the tall skeleton now knew, his brother was currently out in the Underground somewhere, trying to murder a young monster simply because he felt frustrated and/or jealous. If the 'young monster' managed to kill his brother, then there would be absolutely nothing he could do about it, as getting revenge on said 'young monster' would be illegal. On the flip side, if the Fell Sans managed to dust the 'young monster', then he would be committing a treasonous act, which would likely lead to a painful execution. An execution that would never actually happen, considering that the 'young monster' was actually a human of unknown age, but the thought was still there.

Sans couldn't help but feel bad as he watched the dark skeleton wrestle with his thoughts below him. He could hardly believe that he'd just thrust such a challenging and terrifying line of thought onto the poor skeleton, but it had to be done to put an end to his stubbornness. Lives were at stake here! But the Fell just looked so lost, completely devoid of his earlier hostility and stubborn rants. Now he was just filled with deep inner conflict, tepidity and doubt. Kind of like _you_ almost every time Sans extended his hand in friendship, now that he thought about it. Oh boy, was this going to become a trend? After the first few times confronting Frisk, Sans thought he would never again feel that weird, creeping guilt in his bones whenever he fully utilized his 'people skills'. There was only one way he knew to fix that feeling...

"ehem… uh, well, i mean, it _could_ happen," Sans cleared his throat awkwardly as he regained Papyrus' attention, "unless someone showed up before anythin' really _bad_ happened. but, y'know, i just don't know who that could be. they'd have to be _pretty_ strong. and _brave_. and _smart_ too! heck, probably handsome as well, just in case. but if there's really _no one_ around who cares, then i guess your bro and my friend… well. that'll be it. maybe there really is no one out there who's _great_ enough to-"

"ARE YOU FINISHED TALKING!?"

Sans flinched as the Fell Papyrus suddenly screeched up at him, completely cutting him off. Looking back down he saw that the other skeleton was flaring red with rage yet again, his eyes glowing viciously with magic as he somehow glared Sans down from below him. Crap. Playing the brother card had been his last ditch effort to get Papyrus to come with him on a daring rescue, but it looked like the irritable monster had figured him out after all. Sans' efforts had all been for naught. Ah well, he'd just have to ignore the mysterious voice's warnings after all and shortcut around by himself until he found-

"YOU'VE BEEN SITTING UP THERE THE WHOLE TIME AND YOU'VE BARELY WASHED YOURSELF AT ALL! HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO GET CHANGED BACK INTO YOUR CLOTHES!? YOU WILL JUST MAKE THEM FILTHY AGAIN! AND I WILL _NOT_ BE SEEN IN PUBLIC WITH A FILTHY CHILD!"

At first Sans blinked until he realised- "wait, in public? ya mean we're actually gonna go outside and-?"

"DO NOT JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS!" Papyrus immediately cut in, "THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR IRRITATING REQUESTS! I HAVE JUST DECIDED THAT IT WOULD BE BEST TO FIND MY BROTHER BEFORE HIS SHIFT STARTS! IF HE HAS, PERHAPS, DECIDED TO FIGHT SOMEONE, THEN IT SHOULD NOT TAKE PRIORITY OVER HIS SENTRY DUTY! IT WOULD REFLECT VERY BADLY ON ME IF HE WAS LATE! WHICH MEANS WE NEED TO LEAVE POST-HASTE! TO FIND HIM! SO HE IS NOT LATE! BUT FIRST _YOU_ NEED TO START LOOKING _PRESENTABLE_!"

With a final huff, Papyrus stormed out of the room, leaving Sans to sit in the sink by himself.

Did that mean… his plan had worked?

…

Muffled through the walls, Sans could hear Papyrus yelling about wet clothes and useless dryers from somewhere in the laundry room.

… Oh? Oh! Yes! His plan _had_ worked! The Fell had finally given into his concerns for his brother, and wanted to search for him _with_ Sans! _Yes_! It worked! Now all he had to do was actually _find_ you so you could both could get _out_ of this crazy 'verse!

Though Sans _did_ still feel a little bit of pity over the Fell bro's relationship. Judging from Papyrus alone, the two of them probably _did_ care about each other in their own weird way, but there seemed to be some reluctance when it came to showing it. Was it because of the world they lived in? It was hard to say. The only thing that was for sure was that the Fell bros' flat and hatred-filled relationship was actually a lot more complex brotherhood than Sans had originally observed. Regretfully he couldn't stick around to draw out that hidden relationship, as he had other important thing to do (like, for instance,reviving his entire universe). Eh, they'd probably figure things out eventually anyway...

More than anything he was just glad that his optimistic views were eventually proven valid. Sans honestly feared the day that he lost the ability to give others a chance and let doubts or hesitance simplify his judgments. To be completely truthful, his brother had always been _far_ more skilled than him in that regard; always able to see the good in people and draw it out with just a few heartfelt words. As much as people called him naive for it, Papyrus had always lived in a way where he didn't need to manipulate people or keep secrets. He was just cool like that! And if there was one thing Sans wished he could learn from his brother, it was that incredible level of acceptance and forgiveness. But hey, not everyone could be as great as The Great Papyrus, so Sans simply settled for second best and tried to be hopeful where he could afford it. If he just kept up that attitude then surely dealing with the multiverse would be a piece of cake!

"heh. just you wait for me guys, i can fix this for sure," Sans chuckled quietly as he lazily splashed about in the long gone cold water, "that sunset's got my name written all over it. everythin' will be back to normal in no time..."


	19. LC TIME

Wooooo, another chaaapterrrrr! Finally I can get back into the swing of writing the ever-grumpy Reader!

(PS. there's a lot of swears ahead. Don't tell my Mum I wrote all these bad words!)

...

...

...

* * *

You were so unbelievably sick of snow.

Once again you had landed ungracefully in the cold, white bullcrap, and you were _not_ happy about it. It definitely didn't help that you'd landed face down this time, which resulted in your eyes and nose being full of the stuff. It only served to worsen your already foul mood as you angrily swiped at the snow with your free hand.

Your _other_ hand, on the… er, other hand, was busy being held hostage by the monster next to you who (to your _infinite_ displeasure) had managed to land amongst the trees and snow piles without any problems at all.

"Okay! You're back in your world now," you hissed as you tugged at your arm, "Now let. Me. _Go."_

The giant Fell Sans simply looked at you intensely as you glared at him. You'd spent enough time around skeletons like him to know what he was feeling; irritation, curiosity, confusion… He was obviously still baffled by the anti-void and the fact that you'd managed to somehow drag him there. Eventually he seemed to settle on irritation and glared down at you in turn.

"yeah, nah. dun think i'm gonna be doin' that any time soon," he smiled- or, more likely, sneered- at you, "not 'till i've drained every last drop of info outta you 'bout what tha _fuck_ just happened."

You growled in annoyance as you tugged harder at your trapped wrist. From the moment that you had initiated your little confrontation with him, the Fell hadn't let go of you once. It was pretty lucky for him that he did that too, because if he had let his guard down even _once,_ you would have gladly tossed the big, bony lump into the far corners of the anti-void. After all, he'd made it pretty clear he wasn't going to kill you, so what good was he? No matter what you did to provoke the Fell after your initial failure, he had purposefully held himself back, _demanding_ that you return him home to his brother. He was nothing but a pain in the ass…

In the end it wasn't the Fell Sans' demands and threats that made you return to his world, but paranoia. The longer you were in the anti-void, the more you worried about Error returning and finding you. How could you even begin to explain your situation? Would he notice that the Sans you had wasn't even the one he'd left you with before? Or would he have forgotten that he even left a Sans with you in the first place? Would he realise that you'd been using his strings to escape into other worlds? Not that any of those questions actually mattered.

The only thing that you knew for certain was that if Error _did_ find you and _did_ figure out what you had been doing, the pain he would inflict on you… it would be immeasurable. Eventually you relented and searched for a way back to the Fell world, both to stop the pissed off Sans from annoying you any further, as well as put as many obstacles between you and Error as possible. Y-you weren't mentally prepared to be caught just yet...

It hadn't seemed likely that you would find your way back at first. There were so many strings going in so many directions, and the entry point to the Fellverse was pretty much invisible to boot. You even considered just giving up and sulking until the demanding monster trapped with you finally snapped. Seriously, what was the worst he could do? _Kill_ you? Pfft. But after examining your mostly empty surroundings once more, you finally managed to spot it.

Of all the strings that floated around you in the anti-void, a majority of them seemed to gather and twist together in one particular area. You had wondered why so many threads would pull so closely together when the rest flowed freely; Error's strings rarely had any sort of order to them after all. It just wasn't very likely to happen, unless… perhaps they were connected to Sans? ( _Your_ Sans, by the way, not the edgy lard-sack that was determined to turn his big, clammy hand into your new permanent wrist band). If you thought about it, it made sense. When you had first been bound by Error's strings, you and Sans had basically been threaded together by the sharp magic. Even after separating, both of you still sported those same strings around your bodies and souls. It stood to reason that a large number of strings that were tied to you would also be tied to him.

By testing and feeling around that specific group of strings, the static portal to the Fell's world revealed itself. You supposed it was lucky that your fight had carried you far enough away from Sans (again: _your_ Sans, not the Fell) to not drag him into the anti-void with you. Of course, you still would have preferred him not passing out like a pansy and preventing this idiotic detour all together, but you supposed he made a decent compass.

And now here you were, back in the oh-so-wonderful Fell world, with the asshole monster next to you _still_ refusing to let go of you!

"Are you kidding me?" you snapped as you stood as tall as you could manage, "I don't have to tell you shit! Either you let me go right now or we can go straight back! Because believe me, I will _not_ be dying in your _shitty_ universe so _my_ Soul can be used in whatever stupid plans _you_ have!"

Frustrated beyond belief, you kicked out at the skeleton, aiming to hit him in the shin. Unfortunately he moved his leg out of the way and you missed, nearly falling as your leg swung out into thin air.

" **better not do that,** _ **kid,**_ " the Fell growled threateningly as he lifted your arm high, "you may be weird, but ya won't beat me in a straight fight. if i tell ya that yer gonna spill yer guts then _that's what yer gonna do_ , **understand**?"

As you struggled you were reminded just how absurdly _big_ this Sans was. Your entire body had been lifted up until your toes were just barely scuffing against the ground. It only pissed you off more! Just what the hell was that big, bara bastard planning if he wasn't going to kill you any more? And why would he want to know about the anti-void? That place was shit! You didn't want to spend time explaining it to some giant skeleton! Why couldn't he just let you go so that you could be miserable in peace? This sucked! Everything sucked! Nothing was ever easy for you!

Sadness leaked its way into your frustrated mind as your struggling began to slow.

It wasn't _fair_! You just wanted to be left _alone_. But as long as you were alive you would never get the _true_ rest you wanted. Something would always turn up to ruin it, namely one particular glitchy prick. Knowing your luck, he probably would have showed up in the exact instant you finally convinced the Fell to kill you anyway. _Ugh_! What had you been _thinking_ , jumping back into the anti-void like that? Everything was pointless! You felt so stupid now!

The Fell stared at you with a frown as you slowly went limp in his grasp. All of your energy seemed to seep out of you as you mentally berated yourself for ever thinking you had a chance to be free.

"hey, stand up straight!" the bara Sans grumbled as he shook your now boneless body, "i think i know where ya dumped us, but 'm not gonna fuckin' carry ya if that's what yer thinkin'. yer _walkin'_ home! now hurry up!"

You stumbled limply after the Fell as he began marching through the snow. It seemed he knew where he was going and wanted to get there fast. He barely slowed for you as he took large, purposeful steps through the snow, seemingly eager to return home to his _precious brother_ as soon as possible. Of all the Fell Sans' out there you just _had_ to find the one who actually _liked_ his asshole of a sibling. What a weirdo. A _proper_ Fell would have killed you like you _wanted_...

Very quickly you began to recognise your surroundings. It seemed that the entry point to the Fellverse was the exact same as the first time, even though you had kind of expected to land on top of Sans, since you'd used his strings to find it. The trees of the surrounding forest were still dark and laced with an impenetrable fog which hovered high above you. To your left was the same deep chasm that hadn't interested you the first time you saw it, and still didn't interest you now. You knew that you would soon approach the barbed-wire bridge, and beyond that was the sentry station where you were first confronted by the Fell Papyrus. With the pace the Fell Sans was setting you would probably be at his house in a few short minutes. Then he would probably torture and extract information from you, and as soon as he found out that information was stupid and useless he would kill you and put your Soul to work.

Crap. Why did you even come back to this world to begin with? You didn't want to be here. You didn't want to be _anywhere_! Why couldn't you just sleep and not wake up to deal with problems like this!?

"if ya keep daydreamin' and fallin' behind like that, i'll drag ya along on yer face!"

Uuuugh, this asshole-! What was his rush? If he wanted to torture you he could just do it in the forest, so why was he moving like he was late for an important meeting?

You huffed angrily and opened your mouth to snap out something biting and witty only for a severe burning sensation to immediately rip through your entire body. You tried to scream only to find that you had no air in your lungs. Everything immediately went pitch black and you felt horribly lost. You couldn't even move to figure out what was wrong, all you could feel was an excruciating heat and a sense of severe dread.

Finally, after a split second that felt like an eternity, your senses returned and you coughed heavily. A horrid smell filled your nose and made your eyes water. It was the same sulfur you had smelt in the air when fighting the Fell Sans, but now it was mixed with the ash-like smell of burnt pork and something else overwhelmingly foul.

"told ya not to fall behind," the Fell Sans chuckled as he continued to forcefully drag you behind him without missing a beat.

"S-stop!" you rasped, suddenly feeling weak and fragile. All of your emotional pains were instantly overtaken by your new physical ones as your eyes started to water. Your knees wobbled and buckled as you tried to stay both upright and moving forwards. Every part of your body seemed to itch and burn more fiercely as you moved. What was happening to you? It was making your ears ring and your lungs felt like they were full of ash.

"heh. nope. don't think so," the Fell looked back and sneered impatiently, "an' there's gonna be a lot worse than this when we get back, too. i dun care how i get it outta ya, but yer gonna explain who you an' your lil friend _really_ are. but for that to happen i need ya to _move_!"

You yelped loudly as you were suddenly tugged forward. The burning in your body increased by tenfold with the action and for a moment your sight went completely white. It was only when you felt yourself collide with the hard ground that you realised you had tripped.

Heavy gasps and raspy coughs escaped you as you lay shivering on the ground, yet the burning persisted, right through the core of your very body. Shit, shit, _shit_! It _itched_! It itched so bad you wanted to tear off all of your skin just to get at it! _Fuck_! Was this the same thing that had happened to Sans? You immediately took back all the stuff about him being a pansy.

"ugh, now yer just bein' _dramatic_."

You hissed in pain as you felt yourself being dragged face-first along the frozen path, just as the Fell had threatened mere seconds ago. Tiny pebbles and solid clumps of snow dug harshly into your sensitive skin as you were pulled along by one extremely strained arm. Not only were you unable to scratch your itch in this position, but you were in constant, paralysing agony because of it! Things only got worse when you were rammed head-first into a significantly large rock, and you yelped loudly as your poor skull was almost split in half as you were dragged into, and then _over_ the miniature boulder.

"fer fucks sake, at least _try_ to get up!" the Fell's uncaring voice huffed down at you, "because of _you_ i dunno how long we've been gone for. if we don't get back soon, boss will-"

"BOSS WILL WHAT? BY ALL MEANS, PROVIDE ME WITH SOME IDEAS!"

"wha _\- Oh fuckin' shi-_ h-hey boss! s'up?"

You groaned quietly as you finally came to a stop. Your head was pounding and something was leaking into your eye. Sharp stones and half buried sticks poked through your clothes as you lay limp on the snow-covered path. With great effort you managed to tilt your head away from the ground and glance around yourself. You determined by the somewhat-cleared snow under you that you had finally made it to the main path. To your sides was nothing but thick forest. A ways behind you was… the bridge and sentry station? Wait, when had you passed that? Had you fallen unconscious for a moment there or something? You weren't really sure… Lastly, in front of you was the Fell Sans, poorly blocking you from view by standing in front of your collapsed body.

"YOU KNOW WHAT'S "S'UP", IDIOT!" Papyrus snarled loudly as the Fell Sans shuffled nervously, "YOU DISAPPEARED WITHOUT A TRACE LAST NIGHT! AND BECAUSE OF THAT I'VE WASTED AN ENTIRE MORNING JUST TRYING TO FIND YOU AGAIN! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?"

"a-ah, well, y-ya see…" the Fell stuttered slightly before forcefully tugging you upright, "the kid here broke outta the shed, so i had ta go an' get 'em. y'know. couldn't let 'em escape… 'cause the paperwork… heh…"

Squinting, you peered at the skeletons in front of you as you were once again dangled from your poor, abused arm. The Fell Papyrus seemed just as pissed as the last time you'd seen him, as well as every time you'd seen him before that. Surprisingly Sans, _your_ Sans, was standing at his side. He'd apparently traded out the baggy clothes for his own again, and the sight reminded you of your own clothes which were currently held captive at the Fell bros' house. He looked so small and innocent next to the Fell Paps, his soft blue form contrasting highly with the tall skeleton's jagged edges and threatening dark aura.

For some reason, when you looked down at Sans, he seemed… concerned? And maybe even a little bit afraid as he stared up at you. You didn't know what you'd done to deserve that look, but it made you feel weird. You were already feeling lightheaded damn it, you didn't need Sans to be weird on top of that.

"... WHAT IS THAT ON THEIR FACE?"

You felt the Fell behind you jolt silently before turning you around to face him. His eye sockets went black as soon as he caught sight of you for himself. Irritated at your close proximity, you weakly slapped your hand out him and he pulled you away.

"heh. 's just more ketchup," he shrugged, finally pulling himself together enough to lie properly, "y'know how weird these kids are. dun really get it myself. there's better stuff out there."

"HMM," Papyrus hummed suspiciously as he leaned far too much into your personal space, "YOU'RE RIGHT! IT LOOKS JUST LIKE LAST TIME!" Behind you, the Fell Sans let out a silent breath. "HOWEVER! THAT DOES NOT EXPLAIN WHY THEY ARE SO UNBELIEVABLY FILTHY! ISN'T THAT ONE OF YOUR SHIRTS TOO!? YOU NEED TO TAKE BETTER CARE OF YOUR PROPERTY! IT'S A DISGRACE!"

"yes, boss!" came the instant response, "they were just bein' stubborn. hadta chase 'em a bit-"

"bullshit! you were dragging them along on the ground!"

A low growl came from behind you as you looked down at Sans. You were surprised to see that he looked ready to fight, the glowing eye that you recognized so well fiercely burning in his left socket. Or maybe he wasn't actually preparing for battle and was just being emotional? Some Sans were like that, where they'd feel an emotion stronger than none at all and then _bing!_ suddenly they've got a magical disco eye. But you'd already seen this Sans get angry, and he didn't have a glowing eye then. Just what was he so upset about that he'd get into a fight over it? And why did he keep looking at you so weirdly?

"EXCUSE YOU!? DID I GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO SPEAK?"

Sans stumbled backwards a step as the Fell Papyrus yanked hard on his hoodie. You hadn't noticed it before, but it seemed that the taller skeleton had a death-grip on the back of the jacket and did not intend to let go. The sudden yanking didn't deter Sans from his glaring, but it did extinguish his eye… for the moment.

"... heh. 's a cute trick ya got there, _kid_ ," the Fell Sans behind you hummed dangerously, "i'd _love_ to know how it works…"

Instantly Sans flinched and began to sweat lightly. For as sparingly as he used the eye trick, your Sans sure did sweat a concerning amount.

Before things could escalate, Papyrus immediately returned to questioning (ie. berating) his brother.

"ALRIGHT THEN! SO LET ME MAKE SURE I UNDERSTAND THIS!" he said as he closed his eyes in concentration, "SO THIS FILTHY CHILD ESCAPED YOU AND MADE A MESS OF THEMSELVES WITH KETCHUP AGAIN! THEY ALSO ATTEMPTED TO ESCAPE! THEN YOU, REALISING THAT YOU ARE A MASSIVE FAILURE AT CONTAINING CHILDREN, ATTEMPTED TO RIGHT YOUR WRONGS BY RE-CAPTURING THE CHILD!"

"right, boss. ya got it exact-" The relieved voice behind you was instantly cut off when the Fell Papyrus' eyes flung open. Once again he appeared to be a pillar of rage and red fire as he glared at the monster behind you.

" _AND,_ " Papyrus continued with force "WHILE IN PURSUIT OF _THIS_ CHILD, YOU COMPLETELY FORGOT TO LOCK AWAY THE _OTHER_ CHILD," he lifted a surprised Sans into the air by his hoodie and shook him, "WHO I FOUND DOWNSTAIRS IN OUR HOUSE!"

"uh…"

"THE LAST TIME I CHECKED, I TOLD YOU TO PUT THE CHILDREN IN THE _SHED_ , DID I NOT?"

"y-yes, boss"

"OF COURSE! BECAUSE HOUSES ARE NOT THE SAME AS SHEDS! DO YOU KNOW _HOW_ I KNOW THIS?"

"... uh… is it 'cause-"

"IT'S BECAUSE I WOULD NOT BE _NEARLY_ AS LIVID IF YOU HAD DAMAGED THE SHED WITH YOUR FOOLISHNESS INSTEAD OF THE _DOWNSTAIRS RUG_ , YOU DESTRUCTIVE APE!"

"wh- shit, boss, i didn't-!"

"AND _EVEN IF I WERE TO PUT ALL THIS ASIDE_ ," the skeleton's voice rose in pitch, "IT WOULD STILL NOT MAKE UP FOR THE FACT THAT IT TOOK YOU AT LEAST _FOUR HOURS_ TO APPREHEND A _CHILD_!"

"that's not- wait, _four hours_!? we weren't gone that long!"

The surprise and shock that hit the Fell Sans was strong enough that he actually lowered you a little bit so that your feet were firmly on the ground. You didn't really notice though because _four hours_!? There was no way that you had spent that long in the anti-void! Sure, time didn't necessarily exist there but you were still pretty sure you hadn't isolated yourself with the fat skeleton for _that_ long. At most you had been in there for fifteen minutes before you called it quits.

You looked to Sans for confirmation and he nodded subtly in response to you confusion.

"INDEED! IT HAS BEEN JUST OVER FOUR HOURS SINCE I AWOKE THIS MORNING TO FIND MY HOUSE IN _COMPLETE AND UTTER_ DISARRAY!" Papyrus practically screamed in anger, "AND THAT IS NOT EVEN CONSIDERING THAT YOU MAY HAVE DISAPPEARED EVEN SOONER THAN THAT! JUST _WHAT_ WERE YOU _DOING_!? YOU HAVE _RUINED_ MY ENTIRE MORNING BECAUSE OF THIS DISTRACTING TOMFOOLERY! I NEVER COULD HAVE IMAGINED YOU WERE TRULY THIS _INCOMPETENT_!"

"wait, boss- _hrk!_ "

You hit the ground with a small _thump_ as the Fell Sans' hand unexpectedly lowered once more, this time so that you were just sitting on the cold ground with your hand still locked in an iron grip. The sudden movement made you horribly dizzy and agitated the mysterious burning all over your body. Above you, the Fell Sans was looking nervous with his massively pissed off brother holding him by the throat.

"FOR RUINING MY MORNING AND NOT FOLLOWING ORDERS, YOU ARE GOING TO CLEAN UP THE MESS YOU MADE AT HOME _TODAY_ AND THEN SOME, DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"

"y-yeah, no problem, boss."

The Fell Sans' words were slightly strained as he stared into the burning eyes of his 'boss'. _This_ was what he'd wanted to go back to? What a twisted masochist.

A stinging pain on your head immediately caught your attention and you flinched, accidentally allowing a whine like a kicked puppy to escape from your throat.

"shh," came a soft voice that you instantly recognised as Sans, "quick, tell me, how're you feelin' right now?"

Looking up at the short skeleton you twitched. Saying that everything hurt was an _understatement_. Your entire body burned and itched like crazy, and your vision was hazy on top of being obscured by dirt and muck. It was just too much effort to construct a sentence to explain all the many, _many_ ways you were hurting, as not all of them were physical.

You settled with making a pathetic noise that landed somewhere between a grunt and a whimper. Maybe that would communicate just how shit you felt…

Sans seemed to understand and quickly brushed as much dirt off your forehead as possible. Papyrus still had a strong grip on his jacket after all, and as soon as he walked away he would likely be dragging the shorter monster with him. You watched as Sans' bones came away from your head red-stained and dirty. Oh… ' _ketchup_ ', huh? No wonder you were feeling so sleepy and unfocused. That rock had done a much bigger number on you than you'd thought…

"hey, hey, stay awake, remember?" Sans quietly urged you, lightly grazing over your injured head in a way that made you hiss, "i don't have any food right now but as soon as we can get away-!"

Very abruptly Papyrus decided he was finished with his staring contest and turned to leave, inevitably swinging Sans around with him and away from you.

"ALRIGHT THEN! LET'S ALL GO BACK TO THE HOUSE SO THAT THE PUNISHMENT MAY COMMENCE! OH, AND SANS! YOU MUST CARRY THE CHILD HOME AS A PART OF YOUR PUNISHMENT! IF I SEE YOU USING MAGIC TO CHEAT THEN I _WILL_ HALF THE TIME LIMIT FOR YOU TO CLEAN AND REPAIR THE HOUSE, UNDERSTOOD?"

"yes, boss."

Sans looked back at you in concern as you were lifted swiftly off the ground and into the Fell Sans' arms. The action made your head spin and hang limply as your vision swam. Distantly you could feel more warm ' _ketchup_ ' spilling out and down your face. Together with the burning you knew that there was no way you were staying awake, no matter what Sans said.

"heh. what's… matter, kid? y… loo… _dea_... _tir… d_."

* * *

...

...

...

So... uh... I think I did a bad thing. Do any of you know my other story Temperance? Cause yeah, I haven't updated it in a while. I wanted to update these two stories on rotation, but I honestly got too invested in _this_ story to continue flipping between the two. I want to put up an Author's Note for it, but that just seems so rude! I'd be pushing it up to the top of the search listings just to say "Guess what I'm not updating anymore~!"

I guess I'll do something about it and then continue once I get through Source Code a bit more. Once I get about half way I'll do a big ol' update for Temperance. I mean, I don't want my fics to be like the ones that have 12/? Chapters but were last updated in 2006! My god! The horror!


	20. unknown path components: motivation

I know, I know, this story was abandoned for a long while there! If you want more information, please check the Author's note at the bottom of the page. For now, I'm just going to let you know that future updates will be slow. Very. Slow.

Also, please keep in mind that I wrote this chapter months ago, but did not post it. I have hardly edited it, but feel free to point out any mistakes anyway. Perhaps it will motivate me to work harder?

...

...

...

* * *

A clattering of pans and subsequent volley of swears woke you from your sleep; still, it wasn't quite enough to make you want to open your eyes. Your head was throbbing like mad. Your skin felt too tight and prickly. Your muscles were itchy and sore. You really wished you could just _die_ already to save yourself from your discomfort… but _noooo_ , that would take too much effort! All you really had the energy for was wallowing your personal puddle of ever deepening self-pity.

When you'd begrudgingly agreed to join Sans on his stupid, world-hopping adventure, you hadn't thought it would be as painful as it had turned out to be thus far. Annoying, sure, but _painful_? _Hell_ no! If you were going to die you prefered it to be quick, painless, and with no lingering consequences. Yet there you were, laid out and in pain after unintentionally surviving yet another deadly encounter with a deranged monster. Except, this time, instead of being enraged about it, you just felt… tired.

It was painful knowing that you could have experienced this exact same five star treatment if you'd just stayed in the anti-void. Why had you even bothered to leave if _this_ was going to be the end result either way? Yet you'd chosen to wander around aimlessly with a random Sans instead; and for what? An all to familiar pain in your body and a strangely heavy feeling in your chest? No. No, you didn't want this. Why had you done this to yourself?

A heavy fog of negative feelings settled in your chest the moment you realised that you weren't just physically exhausted; you were _emotionally_ exhausted too. You couldn't remember the last time you had felt so low—and you'd had plenty of low moments. Usually, when you lay prone, it was because logic told you that there was nothing else you could possibly do with your time, but now you found you couldn't move was because being a living, breathing creature who _still_ _existed_ felt like an honest to god _burden_ to you. There was no determination left in you in that moment, and you found yourself slowly falling into an abyss of absolute apathy...

A sudden, ear-ringing shattering sound caused you to reactively hiss and flinch. Your muscles shuddered and twitched as you held your breath and tried to force yourself into a relaxed again. In your depressing spiral, you had all but completely tuned out the burning sensation that was still crawling through your body; unfortunately, your sudden instinctual movement invited it to return with a vengeance. For a brief moment, the bitter cold emptiness growing inside you had to be put on hold as you rode out the pained shuddering of your bruised body. More swearing could be heard from somewhere further away from you, though you were too busy nursing your pounding headache and frail limbs to really listen to it. You were so focussed on the sensation of your head sloshing around like it was full of soup that you almost completely missed a much quieter intake of breath right next to you.

"hey, you awake?" someone whispered, and reluctantly you pried open one heavy eyelid to confirm that it was Sans (again) looking concerned (again) and leaning far too much into your personal space ( _again_ ). You closed your blurry eye with an irritated groan and attempted to curl your poor body into an even tighter—and significantly more spite-filled—ball.

From the brief glimpse you'd had of your surroundings, you recognized that you were back in the Fell skeleton's house and laid out lengthwise on their couch. Judging by the deep and increasingly irritated grunts that seemed to be coming from the kitchen, you guessed that the Fell Sans was in there, most likely enduring some kind of cruel and unusual punishment inflicted upon him by his loud-mouthed brother. Said brother had been seemingly absent during your quick onceover of the living room, but your own idiot skeleton had been easy to locate. Apparently he had taken a floor seat by your head, likely for the lack of anything better to do with his time.

"are… are you okay? can you speak right now?"

You stubbornly kept your eyes closed in the face of Sans' ridiculous questioning. Did you _look_ like you were okay!? If your limbs would only cooperate, you probably would have swung an arm out and pushed the guy over in a huff. He was far too close and you were far too testy to deal with his whole ' _genuinely concerned about you_ ' act. Sure, you _almost_ appreciated that he put in the effort to make it _seem_ like he cared for you—almost like he saw you as more than a living tool for getting back his world—but thanks to the poor state you were in, it was coming off as even more annoying than usual.

A light tap on your arm made you growl weakly as Sans continued to kneel by your side, his presence close enough that you could practically _feel_ the worried smile on his face.

"sorry! did that hurt?" he asked quickly, retracting his hand, "i didn't mean to-! just... i dunno what that bastard did to ya while i was out, but i tried to clean you up the best i could. 'm sorry i passed out like that. i shoulda known he was gonna be up to somethin', but i didn't know it'd be that quick. 's soon as you can walk, we're gettin' outta here. and if that creep tries that shit again-! ... nevermind. look, once we're safe back in the anti-void i gotta ask you about this voice and-"

" _Oh myyy gooooddddd_ ," you hissed desperately through clenched teeth, " _Ssssshut. The ffffuuuck. Uuuuup…_ "

Even though his words were whispered, every syllable of the skeleton's rambling pounded into your skull like a freight train. Carefully, you pressed your palms against your head and turned your face into the cushions you were lying on, showing as best you could that you were indeed in no mood to talk. As you reluctantly breathed in the stale fabric and the years of stored skeleton farts the ancient couch probably contained, your fingers brushed against a rather large bump on your forehead. Prodding lightly at the swollen flesh, you were able to make out the shape of a jagged cut that started high on your forehead and stretched diagonally downward towards the far corner of your eyebrow. The wound had long scabbed over and was healing, but was still in the stages of being unpleasantly crusty and tight. W-where had you…? When did...?

"don't poke it," Sans warned carefully as he guided your hand away from your head. You let him do so without so much as a warning hiss as your body was too weak to resist anyway. "i couldn't exactly feed you while you were out so it's still... well... it ' _healed_ ' on its own so- i mean, i'm not really an expert on human wounds but i don't think ya wanna poke it. looks like it could open again any second. no idea what that guy did to cause it-"

" _Fhuh whoack_ …" you suddenly remembered, not really paying much attention to Sans' nervous word vomit.

"... what?"

Groaning, you lifted your head away from the couch to begrudgingly look at Sans and properly enunciate your words.

"I _said_ the _rock_ ," you grumbled. "It was a _rock_."

"wh- he hit you with a _rock_!?"

Even while squinting you could see Sans' expression widen in shock, and then suddenly transform into outrage. His eyes turned black as his head snapped to peer angrily over his shoulder, eyeing the kitchen which was behind him and beyond your line of sight. The near-instant reaction confused you for a moment, but you snapped out of it with a scoff.

"No, you moron!" you hissed at him as clearly as you could with your dry throat, "I said it was _caused_ by a rock, not that I was _hit_ with a rock!"

Sans simply stared at you with a dumbfounded expression.

"you weren't? so... what, you _fell_ onto it or...?"

"Do I _really_ look that stupid to you!?" you snapped, regaining some of your lost vigor, though only because the weird ass skeleton was so talented at annoying it out of you, "I'd already fallen and was _dragged_ into it! Do you think I'd get a scar this damn long if I just _fell_ on it?"

"he dragged-? so wait, he _did_ do it!? he really _was_ trying to kill you! i _knew_ -!"

"That _idiot_ couldn't kill a paper bag!" you shouted bitterly, and even though you sounded angry you couldn't help the dark twisting in your chest. Disappointment tinged the edge of your mind as you remembered the missed opportunity. That _bastard_. What kind of pure-bred Fell would pass up such an easy murder? Then again, maybe your plan to lure him into killing you without much consequence to your Soul hadn't been as perfect as you thought... Amidst all your adrenaline you had messed up somewhere, and your 'perfect' plan for what was basically assisted suicide had actually been a failure from the very beginning. What a waste of time...

"well that's not what i saw!" Sans countered, completely unaware of your dark thoughts, "when paps and i found you, that guy was dragging you along the ground like a stuffed toy! you've got _no idea_ how much dirt an' blood i peeled off of ya while you were out. i thought you were gonna die in your sleep or something because of him! i _know_ that psychopath was tryna kill ya!"

"he's right. i woulda done it. an' i woulda _enjoyed_ it too, if not fer the... _unfavourable_ circumstances."

Both you and Sans instantly looked towards the kitchen to see the skeleton's larger Fell self standing in the archway with a twisted grin. Sans reacted with incredible hostility to the new presence, tightening up both his posture and his smile. He was up from his knees and on his feet faster than you had finished blinking. You wondered if they'd been exchanging threats while you were unconscious, since it genuinely seemed like your Sans was already completely prepared to fight the other monster. There was no way he would have gotten so mad just because a stranger like you got hurt. That would make _zero_ sense. Maybe he was more pissed off about the earlier food poisoning than you'd originally thought? Though something in you said that wasn't entirely correct. Well, whatever the cause, Sans' instant personality switch from quiet and caring to cold and volatile both gave you whiplash and made you uncomfortable.

Not that this seemed to worry his larger counterpart, however, who simply yawned and leaned up against a nearby wall.

" _You tried to kill them,_ " Sans growled, and you blinked in surprise as you realised that the patented Scary Skeleton Voice™ was emanating from _your_ Sans and not his Fell counterpart, " _You deserve far worse punishment for your sins than some menial household chores._ "

The sharp grin on the Fell's face stretched a little.

"heh. what? ya think that _you_ and yer tattletale'n tricks were the reason i didn't off yer weird lil pet?" he chuckled menacingly. Small, blood red eyes easily overlooked Sans to land on you, "nah, bud, i woulda killed them without flinching if they hadn't pulled me inta that weird white void. which, by the way, i _am_ going to get some answers for…"

For a second it looked like Sans was going to turn to you—most likely to express his shock and bombard you with questions about what had happened—but he kept his eyes on the more logical target in front of him as the Fell suddenly took a menacing step forward.

"in fact…" the sinister Sans continued slowly as he stalked towards the two of you, "how's about the three of us sit down together right now an' have ourselves a lil _family meeting_?"

"How about you _bite_ me?" you growled in return, still pissed off at the spooky, scary skeleton and all of his ' _changed my mind about killing you_ ' bullshit.

Your angry quip backfired horribly, however, as the Fell Sans unhinged his giant maw to accentuate his razor sharp teeth.

"that can be arranged~" he chuckled deeply, and his open jaw actually wobbled loosely with the sound.

"yeeeeaaah, no. gonna have to cancel that appointment," Sans spat in clear opposition to the giant creep.

Magical energy crackled in the air as you watched the two Sanses stare each other down. Neither seemed like they were going to back off, but you couldn't help but feel the Fell had home advantage. As well as size advantage. And probably _murderous_ advantage too, now that you thought about it. Yeeeeeeah… this was not a good match up, especially since you were still injured. A fight under such disadvantageous conditions would probably end up even worse for you than the last two had, and those had ended pretty fucking badly. You briefly wondered if your body would be able to handle you trying to book it outside if the two actually decided to fight. Sans could probably handle it on his own since he actually seemed weirdly eager to participate in round two of the no-holds-barred monster beatdown that was about to commence.

"oh, ya think so, _pipsqueak_?" the Fell snarled as he licked grossly at his teeth with his weird magic tongue, "'cause personally i don't think you have the _backbone_ ta take me on."

"trust me, _gramps_ ," Sans growled in return, "you may have cheated last time, but now i can _see right through you_."

"aww, ya poor shrimp. yer still _skulking_ over that?"

"i'm _patelling_ ya, lard cakes, i won't make the same mistake twice."

"heh, just _ribbing_ ya, short stack. still gonna kill ya though."

"wow, chubbs, that's pretty _heartless_."

"well some folks would find it _humerus_ if i let some _squirt_ take me down."

"oh? i didn't think a _fossil_ like you would let anyone get _under their skin_."

"kid, you are so _bon-_ "

"SHUT THE HELL UP! Shut UP! OOOOOHHHHH MY _GOD_! Shut _up_! If you're gonna fight, then just fight! What is _wrong_ with you!? Do you think this is _funny_? I don't have to listen to this crap before my potential murder! If you two don't stop then I might as well just go and kill my _damn_ _self_!"

Despite your weakened state and pounding headache, somehow your skeleton-pun fuelled rage gave you the energy to rocket off the couch and rant furiously at the two monsters. You had been preparing for them to try and kill each other, not- whatever the hell it was that they were doing! Sure, your life was something you were willing to give up at almost any opportunity, but not your _sanity_! Personal lines had to be drawn _somewhere_ and after a lifetime of unwilling exposure you had firmly carved yours around the topic of overused snow and bone related puns.

A brief silence filled the room as both Sanses stared at you blankly, their concentration instantly ripped from their weird ass insult war. You thought for a moment that your sudden outburst had halted them, but as you stared in horror you saw the same subtle flicker pass over each of their faces…

"wow, no need to be so _sternum-_ "

"what, ya feelin' _bonely-_ "

" _STOP IT_!" You immediately shrieked at them in a complete rage, quite possibly turning red with frustration. For crying out loud you had _just_ woken up! Your head hurt and you were horribly injured! Why did you have to be subjected to this pun-laden _hell_ so early!? It was enough to make you want to-

 _ **CRASH!**_

"WHAT IS ALL OF THIS SCREAMING AND WHY WAS I NOT INVITED!?"

You would never admit that you let out a shrill shriek as Papyrus leapt suddenly through the window behind you, showering you with a generous amount of shattered glass. The shock was so great that it caused your weak knees to buckle and you narrowly missed bringing Sans down with you as you fell to the floor like a limp sack of flour. The startled skeleton turned to help you up, but you quickly swatted his hands away before he could do anything, faking a dignified cough as you scrabbled to get your composure back.

You could see the Fell Sans across from you snickering at your momentary slip up. Bitter and sore, you glared at him hard. That caused the Fell to snicker harder. Next to you, the newly arrived Papyrus glared also. The Fell stopped snickering.

"WELL THEN," the Fell Papyrus said from atop his home-made miniature glass mountain, "DO ANY OF YOU CARE TO EXPLAIN JUST WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?"

Without missing a beat, Sans turned and glared at his counterpart again, "your brother's a _dick_ , that's what's goin' on!"

Papyrus gasped, seemingly scandalized by the rough word choice, and you thought you saw Sans flinch just a little with regret. The Fell on the other side of the room growled dangerously but didn't move.

"IS THIS HOW YOU TREAT YOUR NEW SUPERIOR!?" the tall skeleton scolded, "MY BROTHER MAY BE A DULL, UNPALATABLE IGNORAMUS, BUT HE IS NO _RICHARD_! TO THINK THAT WE EVER TOOK CHILDREN AS DISRESPECTFUL AS YOU TWO UNDER OUR WINGS!"

"dun worry, boss," the Fell Sans shook his head in vague amusement, "i'll set 'em straight. just gimme a moment ta speak with 'em alone so i can-"

"So you can _kill_ us?" you interrupted, glowering hard from your spot on the floor. It probably wasn't that intimidating when you had to strain your neck up to look him in the eye, but with your previous outrage set back to a slow simmer you just couldn't find the energy to stand anymore. Well, that and there was glass scattered all around you just waiting to cut you to shreds as soon as you moved—but that was wasn't really that worrying considering the greater threat in the room.

"INCONCEIVABLE! SANS WILL DO NO SUCH THING!" Papyrus tutted forcefully down at you, "DO YOU KNOW WHY? IT IS BECAUSE I, THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS, HAVE SPECIFICALLY ORDERED HIM TO _NOT_ END EITHER OF YOU! AND NO ONE IGNORES THE ORDERS OF THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS! LEST THERE BE… _CONSEQUENCES_."

"right, boss," the Fell Sans agreed with a slight twitch, seemingly cowed by the not so subtle threat.

"WELL, NOW THAT WE HAVE THAT CLEARED UP! IT IS TIME FOR DINNER!" Instantly all three of you aside from Papyrus recoiled at the terrifying declaration. "OR AT LEAST THAT IS WHAT I _WOULD_ SAY, IF NOT FOR THE FACT THAT YOU ARE ALL _HORRIBLE FAILURES!_ "

Once again the skeleton's skull burned a bright red as he stomped his feet angrily, nearly crushing the glass below his boots into fine shiny dust.

"WHY DO ANY OF YOU THINK THAT YOU DESERVE MY CAREFULLY CRAFTED CUISINES? FOR EXAMPLE, YOU, FLESHY CHILD, RAN AWAY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT! AND AFTERWARDS YOU SPENT SO MUCH TIME STUBBORNLY 'SLEEPING' THAT YOU COULD NOT FULFILL THE MANY, _MANY_ PUNISHING PUNISHMENTS I HAD PLANNED FOR YOU!"

You almost snapped back at the accusation before you stopped yourself short. In a way you were being given a get out of jail free card, though the irritated monster didn't seem to realise it. Honestly you didn't want another plate of his pasta-layered disaster, so you kept your trap shut and grumbled at the floor instead.

"AND YOU, SANS. EVEN THOUGH I ORDERED YOU TO CLEAN THE KITCHEN FROM TOP TO BOTTOM I WOULD BET THE KING'S CASTLE THAT YOU SMASHED MOST OF MY PLATES AND HID THEM IN INCONVENIENT SPACES AROUND THE HOUSE!"

The memory of the smashing sound and bitter swearing which had woken you earlier flitted through your mind. Surprisingly, the Fell Sans seemed utterly unrepentant about his actions and replied with a lackluster 'ya got me, boss'. Did… Did that mean he'd been smashing the plates on _purpose_ in there? Had he knowingly been breaking stuff in a huff as a plan for skipping out on dinner? Unfortunately the carefully schooled expression on the Fell's face gave nothing more away, so you could only speculate.

"AND YOU, TINY SKELETON, HAVE DISPLAYED A FOUL MOUTH AND POOR BEHAVIOUR IN MY PRESENCE!"

" _tiny_ skeleton-?!"

"THUS, NONE OF YOU SHALL BE EATING TONIGHT! I HOPE THAT WHILE YOU ARE WASTING AWAY-WITH YOUR INSIDES TWISTING AND BURNING DUE TO YOUR HUNGER-THAT YOU THINK ABOUT THE DELICIOUS MEAL I COULD HAVE PROVIDED YOU AND DECIDE TO SHOW A LITTLE BIT MORE DECENCY WHILE SERVING UNDER ME! NOW OFF TO BED WITH YOU! I'M SICK OF SEEING YOUR FACES! AND THERE HAD BETTER BE NO FUNNY BUSINESS LIKE LAST NIGHT'S, UNLESS YOU EVER HOPE TO EAT AGAIN!"

With that, the loud Fell stormed straight into the kitchen, narrowly avoiding marching straight over his brother's head to get there thanks to the latter quickly scooting out of his way. The terrifying noises that soon wafted out from beyond the archway truly marked the finality of your weird little chat, as it seemed that Papyrus had become quickly absorbed in what you could only assume to be the construction of a edible nuclear bomb.

"welp. guess that's that," the Fell Sans shrugged with a smile, "playtime's over kids. looks like yer goin' straight to bed."

Your body stiffened as he stalked forward once more, reaching out to grab you with a giant bony hand…

Suddenly, stark white bones forming sturdy bars lept up from the ground in front of you to block the Fell from getting any closer. You glanced at Sans who stood calmly on your side of the magical wall, though the same battle-ready aura he'd had prior to Papyrus' unexpected entrance was once more coming of him in waves.

"heh... c'mon, lil guy. ya don't wanna make a scene, do ya?" the Fell huffed as he leaned in as close to the magical wall as he dared, his smile taking on an even more dangerous edge, "didn't we already do this song an' dance? if i remember right, it didn't end so well for ya the last time…"

"i told ya you need to back off, _pal_ ," Sans quietly spat back, completely ignoring the larger skeleton's threats, "this'll be as bad for you as it will be for us if your bro catches what you're doin'. just accept that ya can't win here. me and my buddy are _leaving_ , whether you like it or not."

Grumbling to himself and rolling his eye-lights around in his sockets, Sans' big red counterpart put his hands on his knees to lean down to the other skeleton's level.

"aw, but i'm bein' _good_ this time, squirt! I ain't gonna murder you or your delicate lil friend. _really_! i mean it!"

"right, and i'm the king of all monsters," Sans huffed, unmoved.

A tense silence passed between the two; one that was only occasionally interrupted by the loud, godless acts being conducted in the next room over. You shifted uncomfortably on the floor, unintentionally shaking off some of the glass from earlier off of your shoulders as you did so. At the very least you felt confident that your Sans had the upper hand now that Papyrus had returned. Back when the smaller skeleton had been out for the count, the Fell had had it easy getting to you, but with Sans awake again he would find it harder to silence you both before his brother was inevitably alerted to the conflict. It was unlikely that the tall skeleton would allow another fight to break out in his home without some doling out some serious punishment to his brother.

Seemingly coming to the same conclusion that you had, the Fell hung his head and sighed deeply. A sharp clacking of bones came from his knee where he tapped his fingers in thought. Whatever he was thinking about seemed to make his smile twist a bit, almost dipping into the territory of a sneer. With great reluctance he lifted his head again, meeting Sans' own eyes with an even stare.

"fine. i _promise_ i won't kill either of you. 'least not tonight. ya got my honest word on it. that good enough for ya?"

You scrunched your nose up at the Fell's words. He _promised_ , huh? That hadn't been what you'd been expecting to hear. To say such a thing was incredibly heavy stuff when coming from certain skeletal individuals such as himself-you of all people would know that. Even Sans seemed conflicted, remaining silent as he deliberated the weight behind the other skeleton's words.

Suspicious of the situation, you reached out and grabbed Sans' arm, pulling him back towards your floor seat just the slightest bit.

"It's possible he's lying," you informed him in a quick whisper directed at the side of his skull, " _Anything_ is possible. That's... just the way all of _this_ stuff works. I told you you can't assume that things will always work the way you think they should, even if it makes sense to you. Just tell him to fuck off! There's nothing he can do if we say no."

To his credit, Sans didn't take his eyes off of the other skeleton or show any emotion as you imparted your advice. He seemed to take it into consideration as he stared blankly ahead, his magic not faltering.

"hmmm... ok."

You watched in horror as the wall of bones separating you from the menacing monster disappeared without a trace. Apparently what you had considered to be Sans deliberating your words was actually him mentally compartmentalizing them, pouring out a can of gasoline, lighting a match, and setting the whole damn storage system on fire.

"Wha-? Why-? _Huh?_ " you blabbered mindlessly, eyes flicking from one monster to the other.

"eh, i'm just not up for a fight," Sans shrugged by some way of an explanation, "even if it ends up just being a little one, i don't think any of us are actually up for it. too much effort."

"Are you _crazy_? You can't trust him!" you hissed in a shrill voice, almost nearing hysterics from a combination of fear and fury. Had he lost his damn mind?

"i dunno. he seems honest," Sans shrugged, seemingly nonplussed about how he had just given his counterpart permission to go ahead and rip you both into itty bitty particles.

"Anyone can _seem_ honest, you moron! He was obviously lying!"

"aw, kid," the Fell Sans whined while placing a hand dramatically over where his heart would be, "you're not giving me enough credit here! yer friend's actually a great _judge_ of character."

* * *

...

...

...

Ok, so, explanations... Why haven't I updated for so long?

The answer is both simple and complicated. There have been a lot of days where I have been busy, and a lot of days where I have done nothing at all. Quite a few negative things have happened to both me and my family, and some are so personal to me or other people that I just don't feel like sharing any specifics about these events. You see, I'm not the kind of person who likes to vent online; in fact, I'm the kind of person who retreats when enough bad things happen to stress me out at the same time. This is why I have been inactive on not just this website, but ALL social media for the past few months.

Honestly, I'm unsure if I can write in my current state. Personally, when I write, I focus on one emotion and pour it out onto the page as fast as possible. For this story it was a mix of excitement and spite: excitement for a new story, for the clever twists I was planning, and for _your_ reactions; and spite for the cliches surrounding Undertale fanfictions, the dissuasion of using popular character tropes, and the dismissal/hatred for AU fandoms. Basically, I allowed these emotions to help fuel my writing; but then the emotions faded. Anxiety and apathy from real life started to leach into my words, and I started to feel like my story sounded more and more robotic. The enthusiasm behind the characters was false—a pale mimicry of the emotions I had poured into the earlier chapters—and I began to see my own writing as being incredibly childish and flawed. Perhaps this would not seem the case to a casual reader, but you know what they say: "You're your own worst critic".

Still, there was barely a day that passed where I didn't think about finishing this story. I had so much planned, after all! A beginning, a middle, an end! Backstories, new characters, and new worlds! I had made so many promises, too—both here and on AO3! I even had the next chapter (this chapter) pre-written, and the art for the next character was all lined up to be posted on my Tumblr. I couldn't possibly leave this story unfinished! However, it was only after I received two reviews here on FFnet, both claiming that they missed the story, that I found the motivation to post this chapter... and even then, I failed to do anything until more than a week after the fact. It may not seem like a lot, but it was a lot for me. I don't really have the energy to reply to those posts directly, so I hope that this small acknowledgement will be enough.

I would like to assure all of you that I will not break my word; this story WILL be finished in the future. I believe that it is a story worth telling, no matter the state of either myself or the various AU fandoms involved in it (because yeah, some of the "worlds" I plan to have in my story have been dead and abandoned for a long time now...). I'm just not sure at this point if this means I should continue to write chapters that mimic the feel of the previous ones, or if I should attempt to re-write it entirely (because, let's be honest, writing from emotion alone can sometimes make for a confusing and conflicting plot). Either way, it will be finished—just... slowly.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. :)


End file.
